LYNN — The Lynn English softball team (9-9) won again Wednesday afternoon, defeating Revere (7-13) 11-5 at home for its fifth straight win.
The momentum from winning four straight games showed in the first two innings – that’s when English got out to an early 6-0 lead. LeaNyah Pineiro got things started with a double in the first, followed by Jari Perez who smacked an RBI-double to score Pineiro.
“It was huge to get out to an early lead,” English coach Ashley Aldred said.
The bats stayed hot in the second inning. With the bases loaded, Kate Johannson drilled a two-RBI double to center field.
“When I look up and I see her on deck, I know she’s the type of kid who will put the ball in play,” Aldred said of Johannson. “I know it’s not going to go by her. She’ll hit the ball either on a line drive or on the ground for us to make a play.”
Perez then struck again, driving home two more runs on a single to increase the lead to 4-0.
“With teams in our conference, no lead seems to be safe,” Aldred said. “I kept telling them that we had a great game against Malden coming back from being down 8-0, but we don’t want to put ourselves in that hole.”
Mission accomplished on Wednesday. After getting out to a big lead, the Bulldogs controlled the game, largely in part to excellent pitching from Arianna Laboy, who went all seven innings with 10 strikeouts.
“She was excellent,” Aldred said. “A lot of the runs we’ve given up this year have been via a walk. She was great when she needed to pound the zone. She did fabulous today.”
The Bulldogs scored at least one run in every inning except for the sixth, much to the delight of Aldred.
“We played well today,” Aldred said. “We made a few baserunning mistakes, but we had some timely hitting which we lacked at times.”
With the season nearing its end, Aldred added how great her group has been through both ups and downs.
“We have no egotistical people on this team, which is huge,” Aldred said. “I’ve been on teams and coached teams that had that and it’s hard to stop it in the tracks. This team gets along. They don’t fight. I never have to worry about coming to practice and some players are mad at each other.”
Good news for Bulldogs fans, the majority of the team will be back next season as they’re graduating just two seniors.
RBI (Bulldogs)
Johannson: 4
Perez: 3
Elyssa Sierra: 1
Pineiro: 1