April 17, 2008 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Late lapses cost Germantown Friends School softball
by TOM UTESCHER

GFS’ Marisol McKee

Playing on the road at The Academy of Notre Dame last Wednesday afternoon, Germantown Friends School battled the defending Girls Inter-Ac League champs through three scoreless innings, but then the visiting Tigers let the game get away from them.

The Irish put up two runs each time in the fourth and fifth innings, then doubled their total in the sixth frame to capture an 8-0 victory and raise their overall record to 2-3. Notre Dame remained 0-1 in the Inter-Ac, having lost its league debut to Agnes Irwin.

GFS, which has suffered Friends School League setbacks against Westtown and Abington Friends, slipped to 0-4 overall with Wednesday’s non-league loss. During the first half of the contest the GFS players proved that they were not physically overmatched, but in the late innings lack of focus among the Tigers helped turn minor glitches into costly mistakes.

The Irish, who were missing starting outfielder Maggie Lowe for the game, had fellow senior Rachel Criner go the distance on the mound, ringing up 10 strike-outs while giving up two walks and three hits. GFS senior Alyssa Furukawa (0K, 2BB, 0H) threw the first two innings for the visitors, sophomore Jessica Moody (1K, 6BB, 2H) pitched the next three, and senior Nicola White (1K, 1 BB, 3H) appeared in the bottom of the sixth.

Notre Dame’s Criner grew stronger as the game progressed, but she gave up a walk in the top of the first, and GFS led off the second inning with singles by Marisol McKee and Becca David. Liz Cheek grounded out to Criner to move the baserunners to second and third, but then the Irish hurler retired the side with a pair of strike-outs.

After three-and-a-half innings the score was still 0-0, then the bottom of the fourth began with a walk to AND’s Lauren Boas Hayes and a strange play that started with a ball hit by Kathleen Blackney striking the foot of David, the GFS third baseman. The ball bounced high up in the air and was caught by McKee, the shortstop for the Tigers.

This was eventually ruled an out because the ball never touched the ground, but Notre Dame’s Boas Hayes, who had stolen second earlier, scored on the play. It appeared that she had not tagged up at second on what proved to be a pop-up, but Germantown did not lodge a timely appeal.

GFS then walked Michelle Gavan and Bridget Borgese, and Gavan came home on a line-out to centerfield by Chelsea Vattima, making it 2-0.

AND’s Criner bore down on the visiting batters after that; Zoe Groomes-Klotz got a walk off of her in the sixth to become the only Tiger batter to reach base over the last three frames.

In the fifth, three walks to the Irish set the stage for an error that cost the Tigers two runs, and a two-out rally by Notre Dame in the bottom of the sixth produced the last four runs in the game.