MARBLEHEAD — Late Major League manager Earl Weaver loved to taunt opponents during tight pennant races by saying, “We’ve crawled out of more coffins than Bela Lugosi.”
For one day, anyway, both the Mansfield and Marblehead softball teams perhaps understood what the Hall of Fame manager of the Baltimore Orioles meant. It was Weaver’s way of saying, his team was like the vampire Count Dracula (a role Lugosi played on film). You couldn’t shake it no matter how hard you tried.
Marblehead won the Division 2 round-of-32 game Saturday afternoon, 4-1, and is now slated to advance to the final 16 at Nashoba Regional Wednesday (4).
The win moves the ninth-seeded Magicians to 19-4, which, said coach Johnny Gold, is the highest victory total in the program’s history.
This was a game that featured some clutch pitching, stellar defense, and just enough hitting to achieve the win. Tessa Francis hung in, and escaped several jams to frustrate the 24th-ranked Hornets (13-8). After they scored a first-inning run on an RBI single by Julia Marnikovic, Mansfield loaded the bases with no one out in the third. By then, Marblehead had scored four second-inning runs, and it looked as if the Hornets would claw their way back into the game.
But Francis had other ideas. She struck out Molly Kucharski and then saw third baseman Tessa Andriano pounce on Callie Lake’s bunt and throw to catcher Luka Bornhorst for the bang-bang force before retiring Avery Lake on a grounder to second.
“That was a huge play,” said Gold. “We played a lot of very good defense today, by a lot of people.”
Other defensive highlights included a Luca-to-Lyla (McGovern) pickoff play at first that got Francis out of one jam and a strong throw to second by Bornhorst in the fifth to nail Jill Kopey on an attempted steal. And the game even ended on a line drive to Francis and a throw to first for a double play.
“Luka has a gun, and she made some nice throws to first and second,” Gold said.
“Tessa (Francis) has a good assortment of pitches,” Gold said. “She can throw the ball hard, and also has a change-up (which she used to great advantage) and her ball moves.”
Francis struck out seven Saturday.
While Francis got defensive help, the offense gave her all she’d need in the second. And the sophomore Mortensen twins were in the middle of it all. With two outs, Sofia Hallisey and McGovern hit back-to-back singles and moved up on a double steal. Ashley Mortensen followed with a base hit, scoring them both. Bornhorst singled, moving Ashley Mortensen to third, and then stole second. Both of them came home on Isabel Mortensen’s infield single.
“It was a tough game to lose,” said Mansfield coach Lori Letendre. “We played well, except for that one inning. And they played a very good game.”
Gold said Saturday’s game was played in honor of former assistant coach Todd Norman, who died unexpectedly just before the opening game of the season. The players have played in honor of Norman all season, he said, and passed around his bat for good luck before Saturday’s game.
“He was with me for 18 years as a coach, and was my best friend,” Gold said.
