LYNN — After exploding on the offensive end in its season opener Monday, the Lynn Classical softball team came back down to Earth a bit on Thursday afternoon.
The Rams still managed to push across nine runs despite that, but troubles on the other end of the field resulted in a 12-9 loss to Danvers on the road at Great Oak Field.
“Over our two scrimmages and our first game we scored 80 runs, so we’ve been feeling really confident on that side of the field,” said first-year Classical coach Joe Morin. “We saw a really good pitcher (Thursday) and she was able to challenge us, which is good. I think we answered the call for the most part, but errors and mistakes on the other end hurt us.”
Senior captain Reese Brinkler led the offense for the Rams, going 2-for-4 with a home run, three RBI and two runs scored. Manuela Lizardo went 2-for-4 with two RBI and one run scored, while Izzy Faessler went 2-for-4 with one RBI and two runs scored. Emily Tineo went 1-for-1, but reached base four times with three walks. She also added one RBI and two runs scored, while MeKayla Poisson recorded an RBI triple.
In the circle, Poisson pitched six innings and allowed all nine runs, with several of them unearned. Rachel Dana, the Rams’ other young pitcher, tossed one shutout inning.
“I’ve got two good varsity pitchers here, but they don’t have much experience yet,” Morin said of Poisson and Dana, who mainly sat behind Item All-Star and star senior pitcher Brooke Warren last season. “Right now we’re working on building up their speed and endurance a bit, but they’ve got a lot of talent and they’re trending in the right direction.”
Danvers, which suffered its own tough loss to Peabody on Wednesday, came out firing in the early innings and jumped ahead 4-0 by the bottom of the third.
Classical slowly began to battle back behind Brinkler’s home run and RBI from Lizardo, Faessler, Poisson and Tineo, but the Rams could never quite get ahead and eventually ran out of time for the comeback.
Classical (1-1) plays on the road at Everett Monday (4).
“It’s right back into the fire again Monday, because Everett has good pitching and will likely challenge us for the GBL title this year,” said Morin. “We’ve got a few days now to reassess and see where we need to improve, and then we’ll be ready to go for Monday.”
