LYNN — Pitching, defense and timely hitting. All three phases came together for the No. 10 St. Mary’s softball team Friday afternoon in its Division 3 North first round game against No. 7 Lowell Catholic.
The result?
A 6-2 St. Mary’s victory, sending the Spartans to the quarterfinal round of the bracket.
The Spartans played excellent defense from start to finish. Save for one error committed on a sharply-hit grounder in the bottom of the sixth, St. Mary’s was blemish-free in the field.
“It was a good defensive day,” St. Mary’s coach Paige Licata said. “I told them after the game that I’m proud of them. Our defense was solid. Our pitching did great and we made the plays. There were some hard-hit balls that could’ve gone either way, but we made the plays and that’s important.”
Spartans starting pitcher Lily Newhall, an eighth-grader, looked like anything but an underclassman making her first state tournament start. Newhall tossed five solid innings, tallied seven strikeouts and allowed just one hit. She was relieved by Christina Nowicki, who blanked the Crusaders through the final two innings.
“We’ve been faced with injuries and Lily just stepped up to the occasion,” Licata said. “She never asked, she never said she was nervous. I’m lucky to have her. We have a lot of young kids out on the field. They don’t act that way, which is a great thing.”
Nowicki also put together a strong performance at the plate, going 3-for-3 from the leadoff spot with two runs scored. Nowicki reached base in all four of her plate appearances.
“That’s why Christina’s our leadoff batter,” Licata said. “Her hitting is great. Oftentimes your leadoff hitter isn’t always your best hitter. She’s a great hitter and when she gets on base, she’s chaos. She’s quick, savvy and she puts pressure on teams with the plays she makes. She scores a lot of our runs.”
St. Mary’s raced out to a quick lead with a three-run rally in the top of the first. Nowicki singled to start the game and scored the first run of the afternoon on a Crusaders error. After back-to-back singles from Marina DiBiasio and Talia Smaller, Jordan Sullivan walked to load the bases. Jennie Iudice (1-for-2, two RBI) laced a two-RBI single, plating DiBiasio and Smaller, to boost St. Mary’s lead to 3-0.
DiBiasio (3-for-4, two RBI) added a two-RBI single in the top of the second, scoring Nowicki and Taylor Sullivan, and the Spartans were right where they wanted to be with a 5-0 lead.
“The most important thing was to put pressure,” Licata said. “Softball’s such a mental game. You put pressure on teams early and they play differently the rest of the game. If you let teams hang around close, you’re giving them confidence and momentum.”
Newhall crossed home on a double-steal in top of the fourth, giving St. Mary’s a 6-0 lead.
“Being the away team is an advantage at times because it allowed us to put pressure on them,” Licata said. “It was really important for us to be explosive offensively in the first inning to put pressure on them. Hopefully we can keep doing that.”
That was more than enough run support for Newhall to work with. Lowell Catholic used a small-ball approach to score twice in the bottom of the fourth on a pair of RBI sac-bunts, slimming St. Mary’s lead to 6-2.
From there, Newhall and Nowicki took charge from the circle. Nowicki sent the Crusaders down in order in the bottom of the seventh to seal St. Mary’s 6-2 win. Nowicki totalled four strikeouts in her two innings.
St. Mary’s awaits the winner of Saturday’s first round game between No. 18 Latin Academy and No. 2 Pope John.
