After making contact, SCH freshman Colebe Oliver follows the flight of the ball to the outfield. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

In the penultimate game on their league softball schedule, the Blue Devils of Springside Chestnut Hill Academy got back within one game of the .500 mark in the league last Thursday afternoon, at 5-6.

The locals gave up two runs immediately to visiting Baldwin School, but yielded only one more the rest of the way, scoring six runs themselves in the fourth inning en route to a 10-3 victory. As the season wraps up this week, the Blue Devils will be looking to avenge a loss to the Academy of Notre Dame in their league swansong while also opening play in the Pennsylvania Independent Schools tournament.

In a Senior Day ceremony following last Thursday’s contest, SCH honored its two graduating players. Both outfielder Ashley Lubisky and pitcher Maddie Saltzman made the school’s varsity team while still only in eighth grade, and both have received scholarships to play at the next level. Lubisky is heading north to Wagner College on Staten Island, while Saltzman is going down south to Eckert College in Florida.

Salztman pitched all seven innings against Baldwin, logging eight strike outs and three walks. For this game Baldwin’s strongest pitcher, senior Sam O’Keefe, was actually playing shortstop, the position she’ll fill at Moravian College. Her understudy, freshman Georgia Dahm, struggled for control at times, finishing with one strike-out against eight walks. SCH outhit the visiting Bears, 10-6.

Little more than a week earlier, it didn’t look like Saltzman wouldn’t playing again in an SCH uniform. She was injured in a collision with a teammate while playing in the outfield, and when the first interpretation of the X-rays indicated a broken fibula, she was put in a cast that reached up to her knee. When an orthopedist looked over the images, the injury was deemed much less severe, and the cast came off.

Springside Chestnut Hill had won 12-2 in its first meeting with Baldwin, but in last week’s rematch, the Bears put up two runs in the first inning alone, as a Noelle Zimmerman single was followed by O’Keefe’s home run over the fence in centerfield.

As SCH came up to bat in the bottom of the inning, Lubisky led off with a walk, stole second and third, and scored on a single to left field by sophomore Rachel Kazlauskas, who would also turn in a strong performance at third base.

After Baldwin picked up two outs, SCH sophomore Kayla McTamney walked and freshman Colebe Oliver blooped a single just over the pitcher’s head to load the bases. Baldwin tried for a force-out at third on a ball put in play by SCH junior Alivia Villari, but the toss to the base was late and the tying run scored. With the bags still full, another walk forced home another Blue Devil and the home team led 3-2 going into the second frame.

The score seesawed to 4-3 over the next two innings. SCH picked up a point in the second when Kaslauskas got on base with a bunt and later came home on a hit by her 10th-grade classmate Lucy Lamb. Baldwin got the run back at the top of the third with an RBI poke through the middle by Sam Martin. After that though, the visitors’ side of the scoreboard didn’t budge the rest of the afternoon.

Springside only scored in one inning after that, but it was a six-run burst in the home half of the fourth. Lubisky came up to bat twice and singled each time, driving home the last run of the game (SCH’s 10th) on the second occasion. Lamb drove in two runs with a hit to centerfield, and other runs scored in some strange circumstances.

A pop-up was caught in the outfield in a bases-loaded situation, but because an infielder had raced back to make the grab it was ruled an infield fly, and the runners (including the one on third base) advanced. Another runner came home from third when a Baldwin infielder caught a foul pop inbounds but was carried out of play by her own momentum.

In any event, SCH came away with a 10-3 lead and proceeded to get the Bears out in order in the top of the fifth. Next time up, Baldwin had the bases loaded with two outs, and when O’Keefe hit the ball hard to Kazlauskas, the Blue Devils’ third baseman fielded it cleanly and tagged out the runner coming down the base path from second.

In the Bears’ last stand at the top of the seventh, Martin, the clean-up hitter, belted the ball well out into left field, but Lubisky retreated and then turned partway around to make the catch. Saltzman wrapped things up, striking out the next batter and then grabbing a grounder and making the throw to first base.