FILE PHOTO
Sadie DiCenso went 3-for-5 for the Sachems.
By STEVE KRAUSE
LYNN — For one night, at least, the Saugus High softball team became the high school equivalent of the old Murderers’ Row New York Yankees.
The Sachems got off the bus Monday night at Breed swinging the bats from their heels and kept at it until it was time to go home, collecting 17 hits en route to a 17-8 thrashing of Lynn English.
When it was over, Bulldogs coach Cara Crowley couldn’t really point to any other reason her team was beaten other than one:
“They can hit,” she said. “You score eight runs, you think you have a pretty good chance to win. We only made two errors tonight. We didn’t play badly at all. But they just hit the ball, and they especially hit them where we weren’t. A lot of balls went into the gaps where we weren’t playing.”
Sachem coach Steve Almquist was certainly happy about all that.
“Wow,” he said. “We could probably have used some of those runs for games we have later on in the week. But it was nice to see.”
The two main members of the Sachem wrecking crew Monday were first baseman Sadie DiCenso and third baseman Catie Sheehan. DiCenso was 3-for-5 with two doubles and three RBI while Sheehan was 4-for-6 with three RBI.
“For Sadie, this was kind of a breakout game for her,” said Almquist. “She’s really started to sting the ball.”
Saugus evened it record at 4-4, with freshman pitcher Caitlyn Wood having factored into every decision thus far. Wood struggled at times Monday as the Bulldogs refused to roll over after the Sachems broke out to a 9-0 lead after 2 1/2 innings. To its credit, English (1-5) fought to the last out.
The big gun for the Bulldogs was Tommi Hill, who knocked in four runs while Julia Lozzi batted in two more.
After neither team scored in the first inning, Saugus scored six runs in the top of the second. With one out, Alex Almquist was hit by a pitch and Wood walked. DiCenso got an infield hit, which ended up driving in Almquist. Katie Italiano’s base hit scored Wood, but when Nystasia Rowe’s fielder’s choice grounder resulted in an out at the plate, English looked as if it would dodge a big inning.
But Taylor Bogdanski reached on an error, with Italiano scoring, and both Rowe and Bogdanski came across on Emma Howard’s double. Sheehan’s base hit scored the sixth run. In all, Saugus sent 10 batters to the plate in the second.
Saugus scored three more runs in the third on hits by DiCenso and Rowe before English scored three in the bottom of the third, all with two outs.
Emma Trahant singled, and Sarah Tobin followed suit. Hill brought them both home with a booming double, and she scored on Rachel Calnan’s single (Calnan made several impressive plays at shortstop as well).
Saugus kept it going, scoring two in the fourth to make it 11-3, but English scored three more in the fifth to pull within five runs. And the way both teams were hitting the ball, all of a sudden Saugus’ 5-run lead did not look safe.
As in the third, English started its rally with two out. Calnan doubled, Grace Gately’s infield hit got her home, and Lindsay Lannon walked. Lozzi knocked them both in with a base hit.
However, before English could get designs on pulling closer, Saugus put the game away with 3-spots in both the sixth and seventh innings. English scored a run each in the bottom of the sixth and seventh.