LYNNFIELD — In a well-played defensive game on the part of both teams, the Lynnfield softball team (5-5) battled to the end, only to come up short against visiting Ipswich, 5-2.
Trailing 5-0 in the bottom of the seventh inning, the Pioneers gave the Tigers a scare, cutting the deficit to 5-2 with a two-run, inside-the-park home run from freshman Emma Esposito — her second homer of the season.
Senior captain Olivia Kelter (2-for-4, SB) then hit a vicious line drive that ricocheted off the leg of Tigers’ starter Aurelia Teheen. Unfortunately for the Pioneers, the ball took a fortuitous Ipswich bounce right into the glove of shortstop Ava Poire, who fired to first to end the game.
It was the first start in the circle for Esposito (7 IP, 6 H, 3 K, 2 BB).
“We responded well overall,” said Lynnfield coach Andrew Delani. “Emma threw a lot of good strikes to keep us in the game. We just couldn’t get the bats going when we needed them. I think it was a good game defensively, but we still had a couple of errors. We had those mistakes, but handled ourselves well I thought.”
“Both teams played well defensively,” said Ipswich coach Nick Farone. “It was a good, solid game. The top of our order came up big today.”
Ipswich wasted no time getting on the board. Julia Hubbard (3-for-4, 3 RBI) led with a triple and scored on an infield error to stake the Tigers to a 1-0 lead. Ipswich bumped its lead to 3-0 in the third.
Lynnfield came to life in the fourth. Kelter and freshman Cassie Angilly ripped back-to-back singles to start the inning, only to be stranded.
Hubbard came up clutch again in the top of the sixth with a bases-loaded double to extend the Tigers’ lead to 5-0.
Lynnfield came right back in its half of the inning and had the bases loaded with two outs on singles from Kelter and junior Chloe McEwen (1-for-3), plus a walk to sophomore Angelina O’Hara. Senior captain Lilly Williams drilled a hard grounder right at the Ipswich third baseman, who got the force to end the threat.
Lynnfield sophomore center fielder Ava Ragusa showed off her glove to end another Tigers’ threat in the top of the seventh, making a running catch.
“She made a lot of great plays today in center field,” Delani said.
“Their center fielder played great today. She just made all the plays,” Farone said.
“She’s a bullet out there,” Kelter said.
Sophomore Lilly Gately (1-for-3) got things started for the Pioneers in the bottom of the frame with a one-out single. Two batters later, Esposito launched a bomb in the gap to close the deficit to 5-2.
Kelter said the game came down to which team made the least mistakes.
“We did start off a little slow, but I thought we had our bats going. Most of them were good hits, but they were just going right to them. [Ipswich] was hitting the gaps where we couldn’t get to. Ipswich had lights out defense I thought. We also had good defense to battle back, but it came down to the battle of the errors.”
Williams said she was impressed with Esposito’s poise.
“That was her first start and she was amazing,” Williams said. “She was hitting her corners and I thought she didn’t get some calls to go her way, but that’s just softball for you when it comes to umpiring. Even so, she did great.”
The Pioneers’ next game is Friday in Newburyport, where the Pioneers hope to complete a season sweep at 4 p.m.
“That’s always a tough team, but we beat them 11-1 the first time we played them,” Delani said, “but you can’t take any team for granted, as you saw today, so we just have to be ready to go.”
