LYNN — The Swampscott softball team needed something spectacular in order to pull out a win against St. Mary’s Sunday afternoon, and one of its senior leaders provided exactly that.
With two outs and the bases loaded while trailing 6-4 in the bottom of the sixth, Swampscott senior Nicolette Fraser ripped a three-run triple to give the Big Blue the lead and eventual 7-6 victory in the championship game of the John Holland Memorial Tournament at Breed Middle School.
“It’s just an unbelievable performance from Nicolette, and she came through exactly when we needed her to,” Swampscott coach Gary Moran said of Fraser, who was named Tournament MVP. “We fell behind early, but we just kept battling back and never gave up.”
Fraser went 2-for-3 with a triple and three RBI, while Lauryn Fahey went 1-for-2 with one RBI and one run scored. Megan Holmes went 1-for-2 with a double, while Cece O’Connor went 1-for-3.
Jocelyn Spickard picked up the win in the circle after battling back from the tough start, going seven innings and allowing six runs on six hits with 11 strikeouts.
Ryleigh Williams went 1-for-4 with two RBI in the loss for St. Mary’s, while Lily Newhall went 1-for-1 with two RBI. Roma Braid went 1-for-3 with one RBI. Riley Zukas (2-for-4), Jenna Chaplain (2-for-4), Emely Rodriguez (2-for-3), Brooke Moloney (1-for-4) and Jill Kirby (1-for-3) all had hits.
Aliza Crean Oviedo took the loss in the circle in relief for the Spartans. Newhall and Anna Fringuelli also saw time on the mound early in the game.
St. Mary’s jumped out to a 6-0 lead over the first two innings, with Newhall knocking a two-run single in the first before Braid and Williams each had an RBI single to stretch the lead.
From there, Swampscott’s offense struggled to get anything going until the bottom of the sixth. A walk, an error and a hit-by-pitch loaded up the bases, then Fraser came home to score on a wild pitch and get the Big Blue on the board. Fahey then drew an RBI walk and Melanie Blood hit into an error that brought home another run. Another error on the next play made it 6-4 and kept the bases loaded, and then in stepped Fraser for the eventual game-winning hit.
St. Mary’s closes the regular season at 16-4 and awaits its seeding in the upcoming Div. 3 state tournament. The Spartans are currently the No. 1 team in the latest MIAA power rankings.
Swampscott finishes the season at 9-11 and hopes to earn enough ranking points to sneak into the upcoming Div. 3 state tournament. The Big Blue are currently the No. 39 team in the latest MIAA power rankings and did not secure an automatic bid because they finished under .500 on the year. However, with its last two wins coming against a Div. 1 team (Lynn English) and the No. 1 team in Div. 3 (St. Mary’s), Swampscott may have earned enough points to get into the dance.
“We’ve done all we can do at this point, and now it’s out of our hands,” said Moran. “We put up two really good wins to close out the season, so now we’ll just wait and see what happens.”
