Late surge carries Mill River over Cosmos
Toolbox
By POODY WALSH Herald Correspondent - Published: May 20, 2009
SPRINGFIELD — On a day when two of the better pitchers in the Marble Valley League didn't have their best stuff, Mill River scored four times in the seventh inning to pull out a 10-8 win over Springfield Tuesday at Bill Robinson Field.
Springfield's Ashley Richardson and Mill River's Amanda Ley had to fight for every out as Ley threw 149 pitches and Richardson 143.
Springfield coach Andy Bladyka said a week between games and the fact that Richardson wasn't feeling well contributed to her less-than-dazzling performance.
"I thought our offense might cover for her today," said Bladyka.
Ley seemed to have trouble getting loose as she had her catcher, Kayla Plouffe, yank on her pitching arm during a break in the first inning. Then between the first two innings she warmed up again.
And the offense almost did cover for Richardson as the Cosmos took an 8-6 lead into the seventh inning. However, the Minutemen used a walk, a stolen base, two errors and two wild pitches to score four runs and win the game.
Mill River had three hits in the inning and they were big hits. The first went to leadoff batter Ley who singled. Then with one out, Chelsea Rudenis sliced a triple to the right-centerfield gap, Ley scoring to make it 8-7. Rudenis then scored the tying run on a wild pitch. Two infield errors followed and it looked like the game might go extra innings as Richardson got a popup for the second out. However, Holly Cotrupi was next and she drove in the go-ahead run with a single to right. The fourth run of the inning scored on a wild pitch.
While Mill River won the game, and it was very important in the standings as the season winds down, it was not an effort that delighted Mill River coach Gary MacDonald.
"We didn't have a hit until the fifth inning and there were some things we did like hold the ball when a run was scoring that were tough to watch," said MacDonald. "But hey, you put the ball in play and things happen."
Mill River, now 10-4, entered the game in fifth place in the Division II statewide standings. Springfield was right on their heels in sixth place, but probably dropped farther back as they are now 8-5.
Springfield dominated the Minutemen the first time they met, 18-7.
The Minutemen scored three first-inning runs without a hit as Ley and Plouffe walked and with one out Brandy Berwick was hit by a pitch. All three scored on wild pitches.
Richardson then settled down and retired nine of the next 10, only giving up a third-inning walk.
"We had a monkey on our back at that point as we didn't have a hit," said MacDonald.
That all changed in the fifth as Berwick had an RBI double and Lynn Wade, who had walked, went to second on a passed ball, to third on Ley's single and home on an infield out.
Springfield, after getting the first two men on in the second and not scoring, got one run in the third as Breanna Gunn doubled and Jessie Haskell singled her in.
Springfield then took the lead with a six-run fourth as Richardson and Haskell had two-run singles and Sarah Vredenburgh an RBI single as Springfield went up, 7-6.
The Cosmos made it 8-6 in the sixth when Richardson singled and later scored on a base hit by Amelia Maeksomporn.
Ley finished with a 10-hitter as she fanned nine and walked three.
Richardson gave up five hits, but she walked six, hit a batter and struck out 10.
Mill River hosts Fair Haven on Thursday while Woodstock comes to Springfield in another Thursday game.
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