LYNN — Wednesday afternoon’s game between the Lynn Classical and Danvers softball teams was meant to be a pitcher’s duel. Classical’s Tori Adams and Danvers’ Alexcea Glynos, two of the better pitchers in the Northeastern Conference, gave valid efforts in the circle.
A handful of key Danvers hits made the difference in the end, as the Falcons grabbed a 5-1 win at Breed.
Glynos, a junior, tossed seven innings and allowed one earned run with 10 strikeouts.
“Alexcea was on her A-game,” Danvers coach Colleen Newbury said. “Her screwball and rise ball worked a lot. We played great defense all around today and that makes a huge difference.”
Adams, a senior, went 6 1/3 and fanned six.
“We’ve had some losses earlier in the year where we felt we let ourselves down,” Classical coach Erica Richard said. “Today it was two great teams. Danvers just put hits together better than we did. I don’t think it was for lack of effort. A loss is a loss but I’ll take a loss like that over our own mistakes costing us a game.”
Danvers plated the game’s first run in the top of the second. Erica Haibon (4-for-4, RBI) led the inning with a single and stole second. Lily Eldridge hit a RBI double, scoring Haibon for the 1-0 Falcons lead.
Classical’s defense made a pair of nifty plays to keep the game 1-0. Madison Dana made a heads-up play at third base in the first inning and Rebecca Walker was quick on her feet in diving for a lineout in the third.
The Rams answered in the bottom half of the third. Walker (2-for-3) tripled to start the frame and raced home on a wild pitch, knotting the score at 1-1. Dana (1-f0r-3) followed with a double to deep center but Glynos fanned the next two batters and induced a groundout to escape the jam.
“She (Glynos) threw an awesome game,” Richard said. “She kept us on our toes, she was moving the ball very well with good speed. She kept our batters guessing. We’re going to see pitchers like that in the tournament. We’re going to see them all year long. We have to make adjustments.”
Danvers tacked on another run on leadoff hitter Brooke Grassia’s (3-for-4) RBI single in the fifth. Glynos helped her cause with a RBI sac-fly in the sixth, bumping Danvers’ lead to 3-1.
The Falcons rallied for two more runs in the top of the seventh. Grassia led the inning with a single and took second base on an error. After a groundout moved her to third base, Grassia scored on Alex Marie’s RBI single. Paige Wodarski (2-for-4) singled to keep the rally alive and Haibon’s RBI single plated Marie to cap the scoring at 5-1.
“We always like to add a little insurance,” Newbury said. “Again, we got our leadoff batter on base. We tried to bunt around but it worked out that we got a few hits. It was a good game for us.
“Alexcea’s sac-fly brought in a huge run to put us ahead 3-1,” Newbury added. “Brooke’s a freshman at the top and she hammered the ball today. Erica went 4-for-4. Our girls had good days, which was nice.”
Classical (7-4) visits Swampscott this afternoon (4). Danvers (8-3) visits Essex Tech Saturday.
