COURTESY PHOTO
The Lynn junior Little League softball team won the district tournament Sunday night.
By SCOT COOPER
LYNN –– Just about the only thing that went right for the Marblehead Junior League softball team was the coin flip it won to be the home team Sunday at Lynn Woods Park.
Lynn put both feet on the accelerator in the top of the first and never let Marblehead get started, winning the District 16 title with a convincing 10-0 decision.
Lynn’s pitcher Abby Fila allowed just one hit over five innings, with only Emma Ferrante making it as far as third base for Marblehead. Fila lost her no-hit bid when Leila Walton singled to right with two out in the bottom of the fifth.
Walton was stranded as Fila got a groundout to end the game. Play was called after five full innings because of the 10-run rule. Fila said that hard work by her team paid off as her team moved to 3-0 in the postseason.
“It’s really good to win another championship,” she said. “We won because of our hard work in practice and by coming together as a team.
“It was big for our team to get some runs in the first inning.”
Julia Nickolau led off the game with a sharp single off of Marblehead pitcher Lauren Donovan. Nickolau stole second and moved to third on a groundout by catcher Kiara Edmonds. Nickolau scored on an error and Lynn was ahead to stay.
Nickolau, who went 2-4, scoring twice, said it was a good start and a good win for her team.
“Our team came together at the first practice and we worked things out and we worked on what we needed to in practice, and it showed today,” Nickolau said. “We’ve done things better since we started the (playoffs). “
Donovan breezed through the second inning, but Lynn scored two in the third, two in the fourth, three in the fifth and wrapped things up with two in the top of the sixth.
Eliza Brown, Nickolau and Fila scored twice for Lynn with Edmonds, Katie O’Neill, Riley Mannion and Katie Shea scoring single runs. Fila helped herself with two hits and an RBI, Keri Clougherty drove in a pair with a single in the sixth, Amanda Wilkins had a single and knocked in a run, Amanda Tobin had a base hit and Katie Donovan drove in a run.
Lynn manager Chad Wilkins said it was a very good effort by his team from start to finish.
“When we found out we were the visitors, a big part of my pre-game speech was to come out early and put them on their heels, and we certainly did that,” Wilkins said. “It’s always easier to play with a lead, so that was our goal early. Of course the job by Julia on the mound was big too.”
For Marblehead, after winning a game against Saugus that took four days to play, manager Adam Sogoloff tipped his cap to the Lynn squad.
“They have an excellent team, good players, good coaches, that’s what we aspire to be, a good team year in and year out like Lynn,” Sogoloff said. “We had a big comeback win over Saugus but we came up empty today.”
Lynn advances to the sectionals and will square off with the Woburn/Wakefield winner in the opening round of the District 16 sectional round.
