’Bolts roll to sixth straight win

Joe Russo
Posted 4/30/15

The Cranston East and Johnston High School girls’ softball teams can best be described as two teams heading in different directions. The ’Bolts posted a 15-4 win over the Lady Panthers on …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

’Bolts roll to sixth straight win

Posted

The Cranston East and Johnston High School girls’ softball teams can best be described as two teams heading in different directions. The ’Bolts posted a 15-4 win over the Lady Panthers on Saturday night at Mazzulla Field in Johnston, pushing their record in Division-II-West to 5-1. They have an overall record of 7-1 and have now won six consecutive games. Johnston, on the other hand, has dropped its last four games to fall to 2-5 in D-II-West.

The ’Bolts’ bats were busy all night, banging out 17 hits, while receiving a complete-game effort from their starting pitcher, senior co-captain Paula Frost, who recorded her 40th win in her high school career.

The Lady Panthers’ starting pitcher, freshman Madison Plouffe, was making only her second start of the year. She got off to a good start, retiring three out of the four batters that she faced in the first inning, but East would get its bats going in the second inning, scoring seven runs, highlighted by a Kia Antoine grand slam home run.

“Kia returned to the four hole a couple of games ago and has been hitting very well,” said Cranston East head coach P.J. Bessette. “She had a great game at the plate and in the field as well, but that grand slam was definitely the key hit in the game. Our hitting is there and we are starting to hit our stride.”

Plouffe would settle down nicely in the third inning, retiring three out of four hitters once again. She held the visitors hitless in that inning, as she gave her team a chance to catch up.

In the bottom of the third, Johnston began to chip away at the seven-run deficit. Haley Hohlmaier led off with a double and was singled in by Lauren Messier for Johnston’s first run of the game. Lauren Civetti then tripled home Messier and Jordan McHale’s RBI groundout made it a 7-3 game. Base hits by Gianna Vizzacco and Emely Rodriquez kept the inning alive. With runners on second and third and two outs, it looked like the Lady Panthers would plate two more runs, but ’Bolts’ second baseman Amanda Rosa backhanded a hard-hit ground ball off the bat of Jen Cioffi, which was headed into right field. She threw out Cioffi at first base on a close play to end the Johnston threat.

“Amanda Rosa saved two runs with that play – it could have been a 7-5 game if she didn’t make that play,” Bessette said.

The ’Bolts’ offense would go back to work in the top half of the fourth inning, as they scored five more runs. Alexa St. Angelo’s two-run homer and an RBI single by Rosa would chase Plouffe from the game.

“Madison did OK for us tonight,” said Johnston head coach Steven Day. “She didn’t move the ball around that much and had no spin or speed on the ball, but she will be OK playing for us in the years to come. She’s just a freshman. It’s tough going up against one of the best teams in the league as a freshman.”

Plouffe was replaced by Erica Perkins, who pitched a scoreless fifth inning and a 1-2-3 sixth inning, but East’s bats weren’t done for the night. After a leadoff double by Rosa in the top half of the seventh inning, St. Angelo knocked in two more runs.

The defensive play of the game for the Panthers came in the same inning, when Kat Athaide robbed East’s Brittany Rice of a home run by leaping over the new fence that was just put in place last week. The runner at third would tag up and score, but the play was one of the best in this young season.

“Kat Athaide is a very impressive young lady,” Day stated. “She solidified my outfield last year, as well as this year.”

Day remained optimistic despite the lopsided loss saying, “We are only one of two teams to score runs off Cranston East this season, and we hope the next time we play them it will be a different story when our star pitcher Alicia Carvalho returns to the line up. We hope to get back on track – we were doing so well.”

Bessette was pleased with his team’s performance saying, “We are clicking on all cylinders right now. We beat La Salle and Cranston West earlier in the year in non-league games and it got our girls going. The ball carried well tonight and the girls are buying into the system and are a fun group to watch.”

He added, “Johnston played well tonight and are a good hitting team. They made some mistakes and we capitalized on them. We gave up four runs tonight, which is the second most in a game this season.”

East suffered its second loss of the season on Monday, falling to 5-2 in league play with a 9-5 loss to undefeated West Warwick.

Johnston and East will meet again on Thursday night at the Brayton Avenue Softball Complex at 3:45 p.m.

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here