ITEM PHOTO BY KATIE MORRISON
Mia Nowicki winds up to pitch.
BY KATIE MORRISON
LYNN – Behind dominant pitching from Mia Nowicki and Michaela Hamill, the St. Mary’s softball team shut out Arlington Catholic, 3-0, at Grace Rogato Field on Monday.
The Spartans boast a powerful 1-2 punch in Nowicki and Hamill. Nowicki, the power arm, mowed down the Cougars lineup the first time through, striking out the side in each of the first three innings. A hit batter and an error in the fourth put Nowicki and the Spartans in a little jam with nobody out. But two groundouts and another strikeout kept the Cougars at bay.
“It’s the usual from Mia,” St. Mary’s coach Paige Licata said. “She comes in, works hard, does what she does phenomenally. It never ceases to amaze me how well she does.”
Then it was Hamill’s turn. Just as the Arlington Catholic lineup was getting used to Nowicki’s speed, Hamill came in with the finesse.
“It’s great because I think Mia sets a great foundation for what Michaela does,” said Licata. “Michaela’s great because of the movement she has on her pitches. They’re opposites. Teams have trouble hitting her after seeing Mia. It’s a great play to make having both of them come in and pitch well.”
Hamill allowed just one hit, but a couple of errors put a runner on in every inning. In the sixth, a leadoff single from AC’s Erin Lane had the Cougars threatening as she advanced to third on a groundout and fly out. But shortstop Vanessa VanBuskirk snagged a liner off the bat of cleanup hitter Jackie Noftle to end the inning.
The Spartans pushed across a run in the fourth on Victoria DiCenso’s single up the middle, scoring VanBuskirk who had singled to lead off the frame.
St. Mary’s added insurance runs in the sixth as Hamill and DiCenso singled to lead off the inning. Francesca Simon drove in Hamill’s pinch runner, Jill Gentile, and catcher Emily Stephenson drove in DiCenso’s pinch runner, Christina Nowicki.
“We have to play better, 100 percent,” said Licata, whose team stranded eight runners on base. “We have a tough schedule, and we found a way to get it done and get the W today, and it felt good to get those security runs, but we need to do more.”
The Spartans had something going in the second inning, with leadoff hitter Mia Nowicki up with the bases loaded and two outs. She laced a hard ground ball down the first base line. But the grounder hit Ashley Wojewodzic, the runner at first. The ball was dead, and the batter was out.
The Spartans keep on rolling, improving to 3-0. The schedule gets no easier for St. Mary’s, as they go on to play Central Catholic on Thursday, a Division 1 team.