LYNN — Lily Newhall and the St. Mary’s softball team just seem to have Bishop Feehan’s number, as the Spartans took down the Shamrocks for the second time this year with a 2-1 victory at Breed Middle School Thursday afternoon to win the CCL Cup title.
The Spartans have now handed Feehan — the No. 1-ranked team in all of Division 1 — its only two losses of the entire season.
“We just played an excellent game on the defensive side, and that’s really what made the difference,” said St. Mary’s coach Colleen Newbury. “We had a great practice yesterday and everyone just went out there and did their job. And it doesn’t hurt when Lily pitches the way she does out there.”
As has been the case all season long, Newhall — the Spartans’ ace — dominated on the mound in the victory. The senior — who will be pitching at St. Anselm College next season — went the distance and allowed just one run on three hits with 10 strikeouts.
“She had great spinning stuff and great off-speed stuff today, and we were able to get (Feehan) to hit balls right at us,” said Newbury. “Lily isn’t the loudest or flashiest leader out there, but the girls absolutely love her and she’s really the anchor of this team.”
As for the offensive side of things, Jenna Chaplain went 2-for-3 with a double and one RBI — which turned out to be the difference-maker. Newhall (1-for-3), Jill Kirby (1-for-2, run scored) and Emely Rodriguez (1-for-3, run scored) added the only other hits for the Spartans.
The two teams remained scoreless until the bottom of the third inning, when St. Mary’s was finally able to get something going on the offensive side of the field. Kirby led off the inning with a single before she was moved over to second base on a sacrifice bunt from Michaela Walker. Kirby then stole third base and was able to come around home to score when the throw got away from the third baseman. Rodriguez followed that with a single of her own, and she was able to advance all the way to third base after another poor throw from the Feehan defense. Chaplain was up next, and she came through with an RBI single to put the Spartans ahead 2-0.
But Feehan answered right back in the top of the fourth, as Shamrocks star shortstop Haley Coupal launched a deep solo home run on a 2-2 count with two outs to cut the deficit in half.
But that was as close as the Shamrocks would get, as Newhall shut the door over the final three innings. Feehan moved runners to first and second in the top of the sixth inning, but Newhall escaped unscathed there. Then, as only a true ace would, Newhall struck out the side in the top of the seventh inning to seal the win and the CCL Cup title for the Spartans.
St. Mary’s (16-2) is now off until Tuesday (4), when it hosts Gloucester in a non-conference bout.
“It’s a great time of year to be playing well, and we’re just hoping to keep that up as we continue on,” said Newbury. “We’ve got a couple of tough non-conference tests against a good Gloucester team and then a Lynn Classical team that’s playing some really good softball as well. So the plan is to continue to work on the basics, keep everybody ready to go and just stay as loose as possible as we head into this home stretch.”
