ITEM FILE PHOTO
St. Mary’s pitcher Michaela Hamill will most likely get the start against Whittier in the Division 3 North Final on Saturday.
BY STEVE KRAUSE
St. Mary’s softball coach Paige Licata isn’t interested in hearing anything about Whittier Tech except that the Wildcats belong in today’s MIAA Division 3 North semifinal game at Martin Field in Lowell.
“At this stage of the tournament,” she said, “every team you play is good. This far in, you’re not going to find any easy games. That’s the fun part of the tournament. It’s the best against the best. We’re thinking of Whittier as the best team we’ve played yet. They want to beat us, and we want to beat them. We’re going to have to be at the top of our game.”
The Wildcats are the sectional’s No. 1 seed, having come into the tourney with an 18-2 record. In getting this far, Whittier has defeated fellow Commonwealth Conference rivals Northeast Regional and Mystic Valley.
The Spartans, seeded fourth at 16-4 coming in, won two close games to get to the semis, one over Boston Latin Academy last Saturday and the other Wednesday night over defending North champion Amesbury.
The Wildcats are a young team, with only three seniors, and their pitcher, Nicole Verrette, is a freshman.
“She’s good,” said Licata. “She throws a lot of different pitches, and that’s something we’re going to have to adjust to. She doesn’t just bring the fastball. She has different movement, in and out, and we’re going to have to make sure we’re ready.”
Of course, St. Mary’s has a pitcher like that too — senior Michaela Hamill, who can throw hard but who can also change speeds and locations. And when Licata feels the other team might be figuring Hamill out, by about the fourth or fifth inning, in comes junior fireballer Mia Nowicki.
“I’m fortunate,” Licata said, “to have two outstanding pitchers. I can kind of take my time and determine how I’m going to use them. I really don’t know yet. I want to give it another day to see.”
Against Amesbury, Hamill started and Nowicki relieved. In St. Mary’s win over Latin Academy, Hamill went all the way in a 2-0 victory.
For a team that’s 18-4, it cannot be good for opponents to hear that Licata feels the Spartans are just now finding their rhythm.
“We’ve had a good season from the beginning,” she said, “But the other night, I thought we were in a good place, both on offense and defense. That’s when you feel good about your team. It wasn’t just one or two people who won that game, everybody played a role.”
The game was tied 1-1 until the bottom of the sixth, when the Spartans strung together six straight hits to score three runs and give Nowicki plenty of room heading into the top of the seventh.
“We’ve been hitting all year, but at different times,” she said. “If we all decide to hit in the same game, that would be phenomenal.”
The seniors for Whittier carried the day in the Wildcats’ 8-1 victory Tuesday over Mystic Valley. Christina Bouton hit a bases-loaded triple to help Whittier build a 4-0 first-inning lead over the Eagles. Fellow senior Ashley Wilson went 2-for-3 with two RBI and a run scored in that game.
The teams aren’t strangers.
“They’ve been to Martin Field just as often as we have,” said Licata. “They’re always going far in the tournament.
“We’ve faced St. Mary’s two or three times in the tournament over the years,” said Whittier coach Cheryl Begin. “We know each other well.”
St. Mary’s has had the upper hand recently. The Spartans defeated Whittier, 7-3, in the 2013 North final, and won again in the sectional semis, 6-2, the following year.
Steve Krause can be reached at [email protected].
