Early letdown costs softball Lions

by TOM UTESCHER

In the second through seventh innings, Springside was only outpointed 9-6 by visiting Hill School in last Wednesday's non-league tilt. Unfortunately for the host Lions, they couldn't exclude the visitors' eight-run turn at bat in the first frame, and the Blues came away with their first victory in five games this season.

Springside's record moved to 1-3-1 overall, and remained unchanged in the Girls Inter-Ac League, at 0-2. Hill's Laura Poatsy went the distance on the mound and recorded eight strike-outs with three walks, while Springside starter Delia Langan (2K, 4BB) threw for six innings and Sofia Zmurkewycz (0K, 1BB) came in for the seventh.

Hill outhit its host 13-4 in the game, picking up five of those hits, along with a base on balls, during its spree at the top of the first. Another run in the second and three more the next time around gave the Blues a 12-0 advantage before Springside got on the board in the bottom of the third.

With two outs, Lions lead-off hitter Hahna Kane drew a walk and then stole second. Rachel DeBerardinis drove a hit through the right side of the infield, and reached second as Kane slid safely under the tag at the plate. A hot grounder to the left side by the Lions' Karyn Kesselring produced a Hill error, and DeBerardinis came home with the hosts' second run.

The Blues got both runs back in the fourth to make it 14-2, and even though the visitors didn't score at the top of the fifth, the game was on the verge of ending early due to the ten-run-lead rule. Springside avoided that fate, however, by plating four runners in the bottom half of the frame.

First, Lua O'Brien got on base through a catcher's interference call, and she advanced to second on a bunt down the first base line by Kane. When DeBerardinis put the ball in play Hill wanted to force out the lead runner, but nobody was covering third base, and the Lions had Œem loaded up.

After a strike-out, Hill again failed to nail the lead runner on a ground ball by Langan, and a run scored. With the bases still filled, a walk pushed home a second run, and two more came home when Liz Clattenburg's pop-up was dropped by the backpedaling shortstop.

The Lions had extended the game, but Hill got them out in order in the sixth and seventh innings while adding three more runs to its own total.