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Clippers pound Woonsocket |
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Wednesday, 08 April 2009 |
By STEVE MAZZONE
Sports writer
CUMBERLAND – Making her first start in about a year, Cumberland High pitcher Lyndsey Martins was given a less-than-desirable greeting by Woonsocket High’s leadoff hitter Kelsey Boucher.
On a 2-2 pitch in the top of the first inning of Tuesday afternoon’s Division I contest, the Villa Novan freshman smacked a home run deep into center field. Boucher would frustrate the Clippers’ senior captain again in the fifth with another leadoff homer that cleared the short right field fence.
But one player doesn’t make a team and Martins was able to take care of the rest of the Villa Novans and also helped to her cause with a pair of hits and three RBI to lead Cumberland to an 11-2 season-opening victory.
Martins finished the game allowing just four hits (three of which came off the bat of Boucher) and striking out seven batters.
“I thought Lindsey was outstanding today. It’s her first game pitched in about a year. She didn’t pitch a lot last year due to the fact that I needed her to play first base and she had shoulder woes,” said CHS head coach Marty Crowley, who relied on ace Jillian George for the 2008 campaign. “I was reluctant to pitch her even though she said she’s fine. She’s a senior captain and she’s been leading by example all the way through. She led by example today. She battled all day long. She did well.”
As was to be expected with the cold April weather, neither team was flawless with eight errors combined. Woonsocket was guilty of five of those miscues.
The Clippers took advantage of all of those errors with the most damage occurring in the fifth inning. Holding onto a 5-1 lead, Cumberland made Woonsocket pay by scoring three runs that were fueled by a trio of errors by the Villa Novans.
“We were aggressive on the bases,” Crowley said. “We were really trying to concentrate on the base-running. We did well with that for the most part. If the other team is going to give extra outs it doesn’t matter what level you are playing at. We just took advantage of it today.”
Woonsocket head coach Dan Belisle was not overly disappointed with the loss. He has a young squad that has just one senior and four returning players.
“We’ve only been outside maybe four or five practices. We’ve been in the gym a lot,” Belisle said. “Everything this time of the season is experience. We are trying to get into some different situations; try to make the right plays. I am so concerned with fundamentals right now that the score of the game is secondary. I saw a lot of good things. (We) made five errors, but we made a lot of plays.”
Cumberland couldn’t capitalize on a prime opportunity to score in the second inning. With the Villa Novans ahead, 1-0, after Boucher’s first homer, the Clippers had runners on first and third. Christine Speroni smacked a one-out double and then advanced to third when Kaylee Collins’ hit was mishandled by Woonsocket shortstop Tiara Bottachiari. The Villa Novans were able to get out of the jam when Speroni was caught in a rundown when she left too early from third on a groundout by Ashley Noke.
“That’s stuff that’s early in the season that’s correctable,” Crowley said. “You scrimmage and play Injury Fund games, but until you play live you find things you need to work on. We’ll work on that in practice tomorrow.”
The Clippers were able to open the game up in the bottom of the third with three runs, highlighted by a two-run double by Martins. With one out in the inning, sophomore Bethany Paul knotted the score with a sacrifice fly to right field and her senior teammate followed with her clutch two-bagger.
“My pitching coach is consistently telling me to help my cause,” said Martin, who had an RBI single in a three-run sixth. “Lately I haven’t really been getting great hits. I’ve been kind of drilling them into the ground a lot so I really wanted to concentrate on hitting line drivcs. After that first one, it really gave me confidence in my batting.”
Krissy Peffer put Cumberland ahead, 5-1, in the fourth with a two-run double. After Boucher cut the deficit to three with her second dinger in the top of the fifth, the Clippers put the game away with a trio of runs in the home half of the frame, including run-scoring hits from Speroni and Collins.
Except for Boucher, Martins kept the remaining bats silent for the Villa Novans with a steady stream of fastballs and some occasional change-ups.
“There weren’t really many places you could throw to her - she’s just a good batter,” said Martins about Boucher. “Most of the time I just concentrated on hitting my spots and working on some pitches. I was able to do that for the most part.”
Cumberland finished the game with 15 hits that featured six in the final inning. Martins, Speroni (three hits, RBI), Noke (two hits, RBI), Collins (three hits, two RBI) and Peffer (three hits, two RBI) powered the offense for Cumberland.
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Woonsocket 100 010 0 – 7 4 5
Cumberland 003 233 – 11 15 3
Nicole Boucher, Michele Ward (7) and Kelsey Boucher. Lindsay Martins and Krissy Peffer. 2B – Christine Speroni, Martins, Peffer. 3B – Kaylee Collins. HR – Boucher 2.
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 19 April 2009 )
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