LYNNFIELD — For four innings, it was a ballgame.
The only problem is, when it comes to high school softball, unless it’s a mercy-rule situation, you have to play seven innings to count.
Down 2-1 heading to the top of the fifth against the visiting Georgetown Royals Monday afternoon, the Pioneers (2-4) fell apart the rest of the way, making six fielding errors to lose 13-2 in a game that got away in a hurry.
Lynnfield’s only runs came courtesy of wild pitches. Ava Gamache (1-for-4, run) led off the third with a long double to left. She advanced to third on a passed ball and scored on Georgetown starter Maddie Grant’s pitch in the dirt. In the sixth, Julia Corrente (2 walks, run) worked a one-out walk. Brown (1-for-3) singled her all the way to third with Corrente scoring on another wild pitch to make it 13-2 and avoid an early ending via the mercy rule.
“I thought Brownie (Sophia Brown) pitched well, but they started to hit her once we started kicking the ball around. You’re not going to win when you drop the ball six times,” said Lynnfield coach Hector Longo. “We just didn’t play defense, but there are no excuses. It’s our home field and you can’t lose a ball in the sun. I told the kids, it’s on them. You have to do everything you can to be ready for the sun and we just weren’t and then they started to crush the ball.”
The Royals’ fifth inning began uneventfully. Gamache made a bang-bang play on a bunt to her at third to get the first out, coming in and grabbing the spinner and making a perfect throw to Corrente at first.
“Ava is one of the best ballplayers in this league,” Longo said.
The next batter hit a rocket to third. Gamache made a diving stab with her glove, but had no shot at a throw to first. Brown then made a nice stop on a chopper in the circle for the second out. After a walk to Royals’ pitcher Maddie Grant on a very close pitch, the floodgates opened. By the time the dust settled, the Royals had sent 10 batters to the plate, six of them scoring (all unearned) to stretch the Royals’ lead to 8-2, the big hit being a bad-luck line drive to left fielder Kaila George that popped out of her glove.
Georgetown tacked on five more in the top of the sixth to put the game out of reach.
“At 2-1 in the top of the fifth and with one on and two outs and a 3-2 count, I thought Sophia threw a great pitch and struck her out, but we didn’t get the call,” Longo said. Perhaps the brightest light of the game was the pitching performance of freshman Faith Angelo. She pitched a scoreless seventh inning in relief of Brown (10 hits, 7 strikeouts, 4 earned runs), allowing just one hit while striking out two with a walk.
“We brought her up from the JV (junior varsity) for the game and she did a good job,” Longo said.
Shortstop Morgan Hubbard (1-for-1, 3 walks) also had a solid game, reaching base in all four of her at-bats, the final on a deep double to left in the bottom of the seventh inning. Right fielder Olivia Kelter (1-for-3) also had a base hit.
Longo said the postgame message was crystal clear.
“I told the kids that I believe in them,” Longo said. “I told them we can win 10 more games this year and we can lose 10 more games. I feel like we are beating ourselves right now. We are playing ourselves instead of the opponent, so we have to realize that it’s in our hands whether we win or lose.”
The Pioneers’ next game is Wednesday at Hamilton-Wenham (4 p.m.).
