By Madison Filip
For The Item
The St. Mary’s softball team kept its quest for the state championship alive Friday afternoon, as the No. 1 Spartans rolled to an 11-2 victory over No. 8 Triton in a Division 3 tournament Round of 8 game at Breed Middle School.
“It went pretty well out there,” said St. Mary’s coach Colleen Newbury. “It was a really good game — Lily (Newhall) was right on, the first nine were up and down. She did great, she kept her composure and they didn’t have too many hits. Anna (Fringuelli) played great in right. We shut them down which is good. However, defensively we could have played a little better.”
The offense was led by Emely Rodriguez, who went 2-for-3 with three RBI. Anna Fringuelli went 2-for-5 with two RBI, while Brooke Moloney had a massive day by going 5-for-5 with one RBI. Michaela Walker (1-for-4) also had one RBI in the win.
On the other side of the field, Newhall dominated in the circle. She went all seven innings, allowing two runs on two hits with an impressive 13 strikeouts.
The Spartans kicked off the game early scoring two runs in the second. The team continued their offensive drive into the fourth and fifth earning three runs in each inning, despite running into a double play in the fourth. The final nail in the coffin came in the sixth, when St. Mary’s pushed across another two runs to extend their lead to nine runs.
“Offensively, we were patient and it was really great,” said Newbury. “I love us being more patient. We got some timely hits with two outs again with people on base. I could tell we were a little nervous at the beginning of the game, but we figured it out.”
St. Mary’s (17-4) now moves on to the Div. 3 state semifinal, where the Spartans will go up against No. 4 Hudson OR No. 5 Middleborough at a date and time to be determined.
“They trust each other which is good,” Newbury said of her team. “So even if someone gets down, someone else picks them up and the next person makes the play. You have to build this kind of relationship throughout the year and it has been really great watching the team grow like that. I feel like we have been playing and practicing, practicing and playing and now we just take a little break tomorrow, and then get back to it. Just work on fundamentals in hopes that it wins us the next couple of games, or at least the next one.”