LYNN — The St. Mary’s softball team got the bats going early and only needed six innings to capture the Catholic Central League title with a 14-2 win over Arlington Catholic in the CCL Cup Final Wednesday at Breed Middle School.
St. Mary’s totaled 17 hits on the day and pushed across runs in every inning on its way to the victory.
“I think it really helped us to take a tournament mentality to this game,” St. Mary’s Coach Frank Pagliuca said. “Even though it technically didn’t count for seeding purposes (for the state tournament), a league title was still on the line and you don’t get a chance at that too often against a good team. I was happy for us.”
Lily Newhall did it all for the Spartans, pitching all six innings and allowing two runs on 10 hits and a walk with five strikeouts while batting 2-for-3 with a sacrifice fly and four RBI. Jill Kirby also had a huge offensive day with four hits, an RBI and three runs scored.
“Lily pitched great (Wednesday),” Pagliuca said. “She was really sharp and really located her pitches. She knew that she had to move the ball around because they’re a very aggressive, good-hitting team. And offensively we had a good day. Jill had four hits, we drove the ball well, ran the bases well and got our bunts down.”
Emely Rodriguez (1-for-1, walk, sacrifice fly) added two RBI and two runs scored while Anna Fringuelli (2-for-3) and Alyssa Grossi (1-for-3, walk) each added a pair of RBI and a run.
It didn’t take long for St. Mary’s to get on the board with Kirby lacing a double and scoring on another double from Newhall to put the Spartans ahead 1-0 in the first.
The Cougars threatened with a pair of runners in the first but a strikeout from Newhall ended the inning.
St. Mary’s started to break things open in the second. The Spartans added six runs in the frames thanks to four straight RBI singles from Fringuelli, Brooke Moloney, Kirby and Grossi (two runs) and scored on an error to stretch their lead to 7-0.
Fringuelli added another RBI single in the third to plate Rodriguez and put St. Mary’s up 8-0.
Arlington Catholic got back a pair of runs in the fourth but the Spartans answered with four more runs. Newhall laced a two-run single and Rodriguez’s sacrifice fly scored two runs to bump the lead to 12-2. Newhall capped off her offensive day with another sacrifice fly in the fifth inning to stretch the lead to 13-2.
Even with some changes in the lineup in the sixth, the St. Mary’s offense didn’t falter. Riley Zukas walked and scored on Julia Nickolau’s triple to put the Spartans up by the 12-run mercy rule to end the game.
Now St. Mary’s (19-2) shifts its focus to the state tournament. The No. 2 seed Spartans earned a first-round bye and will host the winner of No. 7 Lynnfield and No.10 Winthrop on Wednesday (3:15).
“For us it’s about staying sharp,” Pagliuca said. “Defensively, and especially the communication aspect of things, we really have to tighten up. I think pitch selection at the plate has gotten better, but at times we fall too far behind and aren’t aggressive. We need to focus on that.”
