AMHERST – Every talented team has had to experience some growing pains on the way to success. For the Peabody softball team, Friday’s Division 1 state final against reigning champion Taunton would likely fall into that department.
The Tanners, who had lost to Billerica in the North final a season ago, showed plenty of grit and determination in coming back from 5-0 down with three outs left in their season. But it was the Tigers who gamely held on to their crown with a 5-3 win at Sortino Field.
“When you get to this level, everyone you play is going to be good,” Peabody Coach Tawny Palmieri said. “It takes something deeper than talent in some cases at this point and Taunton was the defending champion and they showed that.”
Unlike most of their run to the title game, things didn’t come easy for the Tanners (22-3) on Friday night as senior pitcher Liv Mendonca kept Peabody off balance right from the outset. The Tigers (21-4) ace only struck out four but she scattered four hits over her 6 1/3 innings of work.
For Peabody, it was a reminder of the sectional final last year when Billerica ousted them thanks in large part to a pitcher with a good off-speed ball.
“It threw us off our game just enough,” Palmieri said of Mendonca’s mix of pitches. “We didn’t do a great job of adjusting like we did against Reading.”
Mendonca’s opposite, Peabody’s Abby Bettencourt struck out five and didn’t surrender a walk. She was hit hard in only one inning – the bottom of the sixth – where Taunton turned a 1-0 lead into a 5-0 lead.
Those runs proved to be critical as the Tanners found a way to make things very interesting in their final at-bat.
Avery Grieco led things off with a base on balls after which Taunton Coach Carrie Consalvi lifted Mendonca to give her a curtain call. Katherine Larson took over in the circle as the Tanners tried to make that move a little premature. Kylie Doolin greeted her with a sharp single but Larson got the next two batters on groundouts that scored Grieco and moved Doolin to third. Jessica Steed then reached on a throwing error that plated Doolin to make it 5-2.
Bettencourt kept the Tanners alive as she blasted a triple to left-center, bringing Steed around to cut the lead to two and put the tying run at the plate. Seeing things slipping away, Consalvi put Mendonca back in the circle and the senior put an end to the drama by getting Emma Bloom to fly out to left to end the game.
“The girls gave it everything they had,” Palmieri said. “After the sixth, I tried to fire them up and they fought right to the end.”
The teams traded goose eggs through the opening two and a half innings before the Tigers broke the ice in the bottom of the third. No. 9 batter Mia Fernandes led off with a sharp double to center. After she was sacrificed to third, Bettencourt got the second out before Kaysie DeMoura dumped a single to short right, scoring Fernandes.
That run looked especially huge thanks to the groove that Mendonca settled into through the middle innings, retiring 12 of the 14 she faced from the second through fifth innings. Bettencourt also was strong in the middle frames but in the sixth, the Tigers finally broke the dam.
Ava Venturelli got it started with a one out infield single. Haylie Krockta followed up with a double down the left field line to put two runners in scoring position. Shortstop Brittany Aldrich delivered the critical blow as she drilled a triple to the fence in center, scoring Venturelli and Krockta for a 3-0 lead.
Mendonca made it 4-0 on a groundout to second before Kylie Thorpe lifted a ball to right that was just out of the reach of Alanna Sweeney, resulting in Thorpe coming all the way around to make it 5-0 before the Tanners last-ditch effort in the seventh.
Despite coming up short on the big stage, Palmieri could be nothing but proud of her team and knows that getting to Amherst was a great learning experience for a group that returns seven starters next season.
“Now we know what it’s like to get here,” Palmieri said. “It’s our first time at this level and we’re going to be better next season because of it.”
Palmieri also acknowledged the efforts of her two senior starters, Emma Bloom and Terrazzano, who helped in many ways to bring Peabody to the cusp of a title.
“Gina is going to be greatly missed in so many ways,” Palmieri said. “She was the one who brought into what we were doing as coaches. And Emma was just a leader on and off the field in everything.”