by Tom Utescher

Located only five minutes apart but members of two different leagues, Mount St. Joseph and Springside Chestnut Hill Academy got together for a softball square-off last Wednesday afternoon.

The visiting SCH Blue Devils jumped out to an 4-0 lead in the first inning against the Magic, which has suffered from slow starts a number of times this season. The play was more even the rest of the way, but the Mounties never recovered from their early shortfall. SCH took away a comfortable 8-4 victory, extending its late-April win streak to four games for an overall mark of 5-2. The Magic slipped to 4-5.

The non-conference encounter did not affect either squad’s league standing; here both teams remained above the .500 mark. The day before visiting the Mount, the Blue Devils blasted host Baldwin School, 12-2, to attain a 3-2 mark in the Inter-Ac. The Magic remained 4-3 in Catholic Academies play, last seeing action there in a loss to league leader Villa Maria.

Senior Maddie Saltzman (who has signed with Florida’s Eckert College) had been the winning pitcher at Baldwin, and at Mount St. Joe’s she stepped back to shortstop while Kayla McTamney went the distance in the circle. The sophomore finished with one strike-out, one walk, and six hits on her ledger.

The Magic relied on senior Kailey Karabin through the first five frames (4K, 4BB, 9H), and junior Julie Burns came in to pitch the last two innings (3K, 0BB, 2H).

The first batter of the afternoon, Springside Chestnut Hill senior Ashley Lubisky (a Wagner College signee), made contact and got to second base on an MSJ throwing error. After sophomore Rachel Kazlauskas waited out a walk, Salztman sent a base hit into left field, winding up on second as Lubisky crossed the plate with the initial run for the visitors.

Wild pitches allowed the aggressive SCH baserunners to score two more runs; the first time, the unruly pitch was ball four in the count to sophomore Lucy Lamb. Lamb would eventually come back to the plate with SCH’s fourth run of the inning, thanks to a sacrifice fly to right field by McTamney.

The Magic went down in order in the bottom of the first, but their next time up, Jessie Burns (Julie’s older sister) belted a triple to right field. She scored on a sacrifice grounder by senior classmate Mary Buckley.

The hosts were on the scoreboard, but they soon found themselves behind 7-1 as the Blue Devils rang up three runs in the top of the third frame. Saltzman started things off with a triple to right center, and she might have come all the way home if not for a good relay sequence by MSJ’s Jessie Burns in the outfield and shortstop Angela Gervasi (a junior) with the cut-off.

Batting in the fifth inning, Mount St. Joe senior Daria Vining grounded out but moved a teammate ahead to second base. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

A hard-hit ball by Lamb caromed off of Gervasi to bring in Saltzman, and following a strike out, the Blue Devils’ McTamney gave herself more breathing room by pounding a two-run homer over the head of the right fielder. The final SCH run went up on the board in the fourth inning, when Lubisky singled, advanced to third with a steal and a wild pitch, and then came home on a sac grounder by Kazlauskas.

Getting through the top of the fifth frame with the tally still at 8-1, the Mounties started a rally with one out in the home half of the inning.

Junior Ava Jancarski socked a solo homer deep into left field, then Julie Burns walked on, advanced on a ground-out by senior Daria Vining, and scored on a hit by Gervasi. Gervasi stole ahead and then scored when the visitors committed an error on a ball put in play by senior Mairead Denton.

SCH secured the third out against the Mount’s Karabin, who went back out to play in the infield instead of in the pitching circle. The visitors had two baserunners in place with two outs, then Julie Burns scrambled in from the circle to catch a little pop-up off the bat of SCH freshman Colebe Oliver.

With two outs in the bottom half, Mount St. Joe junior Sophia Little hit the ball right at McTamney. It glanced off the Blue Devil pitcher, but Saltzman scurried in behind her to snatch up the ball and make the play at first. The Magic’s last batting turn began with Jancarski slapping a grounder to the left side and beating out a throw for a single. Three more infield grounders were put in play by the Mount, but the Blue Devils fielded all of them successfully for the final three outs of the game.