NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – With runners at the corners and one out in a tie game in the bottom of the seventh and one of the best hitters in the county coming to the plate, Hoosac Valley coach Mike Ameen admitted that he had to pick his poison.
He elected to give Drury’s Brooke Bishop a free pass to set up the force play.
Olivia Perry made the Hurricanes pay.
Perry ripped a single down the third-base line to drive in Emily Lyons on Monday night and give Drury a 3-2 win over Hoosac Valley on Francis Millard Field.
Perry’s heroics secured a season sweep of the ‘Canes and made her a complete-game winner in the circle after striking out 10 and allowing just a pair of hits.
Perry smiled when asked about getting the opportunity after her battery mate was given an intentional walk with the game hanging in the balance.
“Honestly, I gave Brooke a pep talk before her at-bat, and it didn’t do anything, she didn’t need it,” Perry said. “I just kind of took that to heart. I’ve been on [Hoosac pitcher Gracelynn Wright] all day, so I just went with it.
“First strike I saw.”
Perry was 2-for-4 at the plate, accounting for 40 percent of Drury’s hits against Wright, who struck out nine and allowed no earned runs in taking the loss.
Neither Wright nor Perry was in the mood to allow anything like the 16-2 decision Drury took when the teams met back in April.
And if it was not for a couple of defensive breakdowns by the Hurricanes in the bottom of the third, this rematch could have been one of the lowest scoring games in a season punctuated by double-digit run totals throughout the county.
Both Wright and Perry pitched out of second-and-third jams in the first inning.
And it was a 0-0 game going into the third.
That is when Wright helped her cause by working a leadoff walk, moving to second on Genevieve Lagess’ one-out walk, taking third on a pitch that got to the backstop and scoring on Izabella Tart’s RBI groundout to give Hoosac Valley a 1-0 lead.
Lagess then scored on a wild pitch to give the ‘Canes a two-run lead before Perry closed the door with a called third strike to end the inning.
Drury erased that lead right away in the bottom of the inning, helped by four Hoosac Valley errors.
Ariana Rivard had the inning’s only hit for the Blue Devils, moving Maddie Saunders from second to third. Saunders eventually scored when Marley Brothers reached on an error, and Rivard scored on another error to tie the game, 2-2.
Wright pitched around errors in the fourth and fifth innings, not allowing a runner past first base, and she worked a 1-2-3 sixth with a pair of strikeouts to hold Drury to two runs.
Meanwhile, Perry also stranded a pair of runners over the next three innings, avoiding damage after a leadoff walk to Tart to start the sixth. Tart stole second before Perry was able to end the inning with back-to-back Ks.
And Perry sat down the side in order in the top of the seventh to give the Blue Devils a chance to end the game with a run in the home half of the inning.
Lyons led off with a single to left-center to bring up the top of Drury’s order with nobody out and a runner on first.
“Lyons did get the hit to start that [winning rally], and that was amazing,” Drury coach Michelle Darling said. “She’s been in a little fog, sort of. But she’s been working extremely hard, and she came up with that big hit.”
Wright got the next hitter to strike out, but an error and a passed ball put Lyons on third and Rivard on first with Bishop in the batter’s box.
“It is not the first time someone has walked Brooke intentionally to have Olivia step up,” Darling said. “It’s just great. They helped out each other today. They picked each other up, and that was one huge thing we were trying to accomplish today.”
Perry, who boasts a .463 batting average with now 19 RBIs, delivered the game-ending RBI single for a rivalry win.
“It feels amazing,” she said. “It’s always fun playing Hoosac. I have a lot of friends on the team. It’s always fun.”
Drury (10-5) now knows its fun will continue into the state tournament. Before it gets there, it has two regular season games left, starting Tuesday at home against Chicopee, followed by next week’s Western Mass tournament.
Hoosac Valley (11-5) also will be in the mix in both post-season tournaments after finishing its schedule Thursday at home against McCann Tech.
Despite a pair of losses in its last two outings, Ameen knows that the Hurricanes are playing well as the regular season winds down.
“We’ve played some good teams recently,” he said. “Monument Mountain [a 5-4 loss] was a good team. PHS [an 8-2 loss] is a good team. [Drury] is a good team. We’re playing well. We’re in the game.
“It’s not enough for me, at this point. But it’s enough for today. We want to strive to be the best we can. But I’ll take it today.”
