Panthers surrender 10 unanswered runs in loss to Pats

By Jacob Marrocco
Posted 4/28/16

The Pilgrim softball team had just committed two errors that allowed Johnston to take a 4-0 lead when senior captain Madison Balutowski, Jeriann Evans and Victoria Blanchard held an impromptu …

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Panthers surrender 10 unanswered runs in loss to Pats

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The Pilgrim softball team had just committed two errors that allowed Johnston to take a 4-0 lead when senior captain Madison Balutowski, Jeriann Evans and Victoria Blanchard held an impromptu players-only meeting in between innings.

“They had a meeting, and I wasn’t part of it,” Pilgrim manager Bill Aquilante said of the post-second inning discussion. “I don’t even know what they said to be honest with you. And I just went and coached third, and it’s all on them. It’s all them. They decided that they wanted to get out of the little rut they were in and start attacking.”

The contents of the speech were confidential, but whatever was said must have worked. The Pats immediately started on a string of 10 unanswered runs to hand the Panthers their second consecutive loss. Cleanup hitter and third baseman Katrina Kazen had four RBIs while catcher Olivia King recorded three.

It was the second straight game in which the Pats have tallied double-digit runs, as they also beat Scituate, 14-3, last Tuesday.

“[Kazen] really hits the ball well,” Aquilante said. “She hasn’t done as much pitching, [but] she’s been pretty awesome. Olivia, too. This game was a little more of an impressive win. Scituate was a little short-handed, Johnston’s been trying to beat us for a while, and all the games against Johnston are usually one-run games. I’m proud of the way they picked themselves up without me saying anything.”

Starting pitcher Morgan Almon settled down as well, tossing a complete game with nine strikeouts, two walks and just one earned run. She didn’t allow a Johnston runner to get into scoring position during the final five innings.

The second inning was far from sterling for the Pats. After Almon induced a quick pop-up to second and a liner to right field, Kat Athaide stepped in and hit a shot that popped out of Kazen’s glove at third. Leadoff hitter Jordan Messier then reached on a bunt single and Athaide scampered over to third to put runners at the corners with two down.

Lauren Civetti looked like she would make the final out of the inning as she hit a fly ball to right center field, where right fielder Emma Hlavacek called off Balutowski. The ball hit Hlavacek’s glove and dropped to the grass, allowing Athaide and Messier to trot home. Civetti reached third on the play and would score on a wild pitch to up the Johnston lead to 4-0.

“Maddie covers a lot of ground and she got in the way and it fell, but that’s not part of the defense that I’m really worried about,” Aquilante said.

It was all Pilgrim from there, and it started its third-inning rally in decisive fashion. Blanchard, hitting in the No. 9 spot, began a streak of five straight base knocks for Pilgrim, sending a ball into right field. Leadoff hitter Madison Balutowski reached on a bunt single before Hlavacek blooped a hit over Civetti’s head to load the bases.

King came up and cut the deficit in half with a base hit into right center field that scored Blanchard and Balutowski. The throw home would allow King and Hlavacek to advance to second and third, respectively.

Kazen then registered her first big single out of the cleanup spot, bringing King and Hlavacek across the dish to knot the score at 4.

“We’re beating ourselves,” Johnston manager Steven Day said. “Good teams, but we’re beating ourselves.”

Pilgrim continued its offensive surge in the fourth, beginning with Balutowski’s one-out walk. She would bolt all the way to third on a wild pitch, just getting under the tag from Jordan Moretti. Hlavacek bunted and later easily stole second base on a throw down to third.

King continued to deliver, lashing a base hit into left field that gave Pilgrim its first lead of the day. Hlavacek also came around on the single and looked to be out, but the relay throw to catcher Gianna Vizzacco wasn’t handled cleanly at the plate.

Kazen would walk and Almon would reach on an error before Johnston starter Madison Plouffe was taken out for reliever Erica Perkins. Day said Plouffe was battling an illness and gave the Panthers all she could before leaving the game.

“She couldn’t breathe, but she was a trooper,” Day said. “She went as far as she could.”

Jeriann Evans didn’t give Perkins a warm welcome, crushing a two-RBI single that opened the game up and gave Pilgrim an 8-4 lead.

From the fourth inning on, the Johnston offense struggled to produce. Athaide was hit by a pitch with one out in the fourth, but Almon ended the threat when she got Messier to pop up and Civetti to line out.

“They can’t watch third strikes, that’s a no-no,” Day said. “They gotta get their bat on the ball. Good things happen when they do. We were leading our division in runs scored, almost in the teens in every game. So we just got to string them together.”

McHale reached on a bloop single with one down in the fifth, but she learned the strength of King’s arm behind the plate the hard way. She attempted to steal second during Vizzacco’s at-bat, but King caught her by a couple feet. Vizzacco would fly out to end the frame.

“From the first game to this game, she’s really starting to throw the ball,” Aquilante said of Almon. “She’s really starting to hit the strike zone, which is good. She’s starting to really get command, hitting the spot where we want her to throw it. We had a lot of info on Johnston, we play them a lot. We had a plan of attack on what to do with their better hitters.”

The Pats tacked on two insurance runs in the seventh inning to seal the win. Perkins got two quick outs before Hlavacek dropped a single into left field. King followed up with her third hit of the day, but Messier couldn’t handle it cleanly in center. Hlavacek and King both got into scoring position, and Kazen cleaned up again.

She sent a shot back up the middle to pick up her third and fourth RBIs on the afternoon, putting Pilgrim ahead, 10-4. Almon quieted the Panthers’ comeback efforts, striking out four of the last six batters she faced.

The Panthers bounced back with a 2-1 victory over Burrillville on Monday, as Moretti broke a 1-1 tie in the bottom of the fifth with a solo home run.

Johnston will look to continue its winning ways against North Providence at Mazzulla Field on Friday at 3:30 p.m.

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