Second-inning rally gives Eagles win over FF
LIMESTONE, Maine — The LCS/MSSM Eagles scored five times in the bottom of the second, taking advantage of a couple throwing errors and using the long ball by one of their veteran hitters en route to winning Thursday’s softball matchup over Fort Fairfield, 11-4.
The Tigers took a 1-0 lead in the top of the inning after Emily Everitt’s single up the middle scored Kayla Tisdale from second base.
In the Eagles’ half of the inning, Marissa Emery led off and tapped the ball in front of the plate. FF catcher Taylor Churchill threw it into right field and Emery came around the bases to score the tying run.
Bethany Millette followed by reaching on another error. Morganne Emery singled and Emery scored the second run on an infield groundout by Francesca Armstrong.
After Lasha Butler was hit by a pitch, LCS/MSSM senior third baseman Jackie Peers lined a Sara Edgecomb pitch over the left-center field fence to make it 5-1.
Peers’ homer was big as the Eagles offense had struggled in the first three games of the season.
“If we start hitting the ball, I think we’ll be every bit as good as we were last year,” said LCS/MSSM coach Jamie Albert, whose team reached the Class D regional final in 2015 before falling to Schenck. “We’ve had some tentative swings, but Jackie is strong and when she gets the barrel of the bat out there, she hits it so hard.”
Marissa Emery bunted for a base hit to begin the Eagle third inning. She promptly stole second, advanced to third on the Tigers’ third throwing error of the game and scored on Millette’s RBI double.
Wildness got LCS/MSSM pitcher Delaney Rossignol in trouble in the top of the fourth. Everitt, Churchill and Sarah Watt all reached on walks to load the bases before Morgann Towle delivered a two-run single and Sadie Edgecomb brought Watt home for the third run of the frame, cutting the deficit to 6-4.
The Eagles put the game away in the bottom of the sixth as they scored five more times. Millette hit an opposite-field double over the right fielder’s head before Morganne Emery took advantage of yet another misfired throw by a Tiger infielder. Armstrong, Sarah Hemphill, Kassee Albert, Maddie Williams and Marissa Emery all followed with hits later in the inning.
Fort Fairfield went down quietly in the seventh to finish the contest.
LCS/MSSM, which also collected victories over Madawaska and Washburn in recent action, is now 4-1 and in seventh place in the Class C North division. The Tigers, who bounced back by nipping Fort Kent on the road Monday, 10-9, stands at 3-3 and in 10th place in Class D.
Tim Watt, the first-year Tiger coach, said the defensive miscues his team made were a product of shifting personnel around as starting third baseman Autumn Parady was ill and didn’t make the trip.
“Plus two of our seniors decided not to come out for the team and a third (Alexis Coiley) has a broken foot, so that makes us very young and inexperienced,” Watt said. “We played with heart, but we made some mistakes in the infield and in the outfield.”
