LYNN — The Lynn Classical softball team was forced to battle off a late rally by cross-town rival Lynn English Wednesday, and the Rams did just that in a 12-6 win in a Greater Boston League bout at Breed Middle School.
As has been the case for much of the season to this point, Manuela Lizardo led the offensive attack for the Rams. Lizardo went 2-for-3 in the win, knocking a home run and a double and finishing with three RBI. Gianna Coito added two RBI despite going 0-for-4, while Izzy Faessler went 2-for-3 with a double and one RBI. Nevaeh Eth (2-for-4, run scored) and MeKayla Poisson (1-for-3, two runs scored) also added hits in the victory.
Rachel Dana picked up the win in the circle for Classical after going 5 1/3 innings and allowing six runs on nine hits with three strikeouts. Poisson came on to earn the five-out save, allowing just two hits and striking out two.
Janessa Lopez had a huge day at the plate in the losing effort for English, going 3-for-5 with a triple and two RBI. Allie Chen went 1-for-3 with a triple and two RBI, while Leanyah Pineiro went 2-for-3 with one RBI. Kate Johansson (1-for-5, run scored), Jari Perez (1-for-2, run scored), Kelsey McNeil (1-for-4, run scored) and Ariana Reynoso (1-for-4) also had hits for the Bulldogs.
The loss in the circle went to Arianna Laboy, who went all six innings for the Bulldogs and allowed 12 runs on seven hits with two strikeouts.
Classical came right out and jumped ahead early in this one, pushing across four runs in the bottom of the first behind some great baserunning. The Rams scored two runs on passed balls and scored another on a heads-up play before Coito drove in the fourth run with a groundout.
English loaded up the bases in each of the first two innings, but couldn’t come away with a single run either time. The Bulldogs finally broke through in the third, scoring on a heads-up play when Pineiro broke for home after a throw back to the pitcher got away.
Classical answered right back in the bottom of the inning, picking up a run on a passed ball and later scoring on an error to make it a 6-1 game.
The Rams stretched that lead to 9-1 in the fourth after an RBI double from Faessler and a two-run home run by Lizardo, and it looked like Classical might run away with the win.
But English wouldn’t go down easily, and the Bulldogs put together a five-run top of the sixth to cut the deficit to just three runs. It started with a two-run triple from Lopez, then two batters later Chen hit a two-run triple of her own. Pineiro added an RBI single after that to round out the scoring for the Bulldogs.
Unfortunately for English, Classical wasn’t done scoring either. Faessler led off the bottom of the sixth with a single and was immediately knocked home on an RBI double from Lizardo, who later came around to score on a passed ball. After Coito notched her second RBI groundout of the game, the score stood at 12-6 Rams.
Poisson came out to finish things from there, closing the game with a strikeout to give Classical the victory.
Lynn English (5-5) has a quick turnaround with a home game against Salem Thursday (4).
Lynn Classical (11-3) is off until Monday (4) when it travels to Somerville.
