EAST PROVIDENCE ---- Agony and East Providence High have gone hand-in-hand these past few days.
Less than 24 hours after dropping an extra-inning thriller to Warwick Vets High, the Townies saw a chance to climb back above the .500 mark slip away in the final inning of Thursday afternoon's duel with Toll Gate High.
Amanda Marble's two-run triple down the left-field line with two outs in the top of the seventh inning erased what would have been a one-run triumph for the Townies. And in the bottom of the frame, EP had runners in scoring position with one out, but bunted into an unusual game-ending double play that allowed the visiting Titans to bus out of Pierce Field with a 3-2 victory.
This game was one that neither the Titans nor the Townies deserved to win. The Titans stranded 11 runners on base and committed four errors in the field, and the Townies were held in check for most of the game by Toll Gate pitcher Kara MacKinnon while receiving seven walks and two hit batsmen from their ace pitcher, Kelley Clancy.
And then there was the bizarre finish.
After Caity Arico led off with a bloop single to shallow right-center field, pinch-hitter Amanda Cabral tried to advance her to second with a sacrifice bunt, but MacKinnon fielded the ball and fired it wide of first base, allowing Arico to coast into third.
Cabral then swiped second when MacKinnon struck out the next batter she faced, and that brought Lauren Ghazal to the "We showed the suicide a little early, the bunt didnt go the way we wanted it, and things kind of fell apart there," admitted EP coach Rob Traverse, whose crew slipped to 4-5. "We were flirting with the loss all day long. Just the way the game ended was a surprise."
The Titans, who are 8-1 (with their lone defeat being a 1-0 setback to Cumberland High on April 10) and in second place in the Division 1 standings (a full game behind unbeaten Bay View Academy and a half-game ahead of 7-1 La Salle Academy), struggled to produce the big hit all afternoon long. They left a total of six runners in scoring position, the bases loaded in the second, and a pair of runners on first and second in the fourth through sixth innings.
But while their clutch hitting was off, MacKinnon was on, as she delivered one of her finest outings of the season. She struck out 10 batters (and seven of the first 10 she faced) and allowed a season-low four hits and no walks.
Both of the runs MacKinnon allowed were unearned and came in the fourth inning. With one gone, Marion Potter laced a ground single up the middle, and with two outs, Clancy lofted a high pop fly to the right of the mound that appeared to be the final out.
But Allen camped under the ball and dropped it, and when she picked it up and tried to throw out Potter at second, she fired it into right-center field, allowing Potter to tour the bases and Clancy to race to third.
Cabral then entered the game to pinch-run for Clancy, but she didn't last long on third. Arico drove her in with a sharp single to right -- and just beat the quick throw to first by right fielder Steph Dion -- to give the Townies a 2-0 lead.
The Titans quickly sliced their deficit in half in the fifth when Nicole Beaudry led off with a single up the middle, took second on a sacrifice bunt by Kathleen Barron, and scored on another hit up the middle by Allen, and that set the stage for the dramatic seventh and Marble's heroics.
"(Toll Gate) didn't deserve to win, but neither did our team," added Traverse. "We just put too many people on base. Our defense played pretty well, but it seemed like they were in pressure situations every time they walked out on the field. (Toll Gate) is 8-1 for a reason, and it was a matter of time before one of their hitters put one in play and put us behind."
Despite struggling with her control, Clancy still finished with a six-hitter that included 10 strikeouts, including four that allowed her to wiggle off the hook in the first, fourth, fifth, and sixth innings. Allen collected three of the Titans' hits and Wasser walked in all four of her plate appearances, and Arico and Potter each had a multiple-hit game for the Townies.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Townies absorbed a 3-2 loss on the road to the Hurricanes, who won the game with one out in the bottom of the eighth on a run-scoring single by winning pitcher Casey Doyle. Clancy pitched a four-hitter for the Townies, but also walked a season-high eight batters.
