McCann Tech Comes Back to Top Drury

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. -- Top of the seventh, a two-run lead, two runners on base and two of the league's most dangerous hitters coming to the plate.

 

"I was a little nervous," McCann Tech pitcher Hannah Tatro said after she retired the side to secure a 5-3 win over rival Drury on Tuesday afternoon.

 

"But, as a pitcher, you always get told to kind of bury it. Get the out. So I was able to pull deep and rely on my defense."

 

Blue Devil basher Brooke Bishop (.569, five HRs) pounded a ball deep to right-center, but Svea Lawson ranged well to her right to make the grab and give Tatro the second out.

 

Maddie Saunders moved up from second base on the play. And Ariana Rivard subsequently stole second to put two in scoring position with Olivia Perry (.510, 24 RBIs stepping into the box).

 

Tatro proceeded to get her seventh strikeout of the afternoon to end the game and give the Hornets a 9-6 record with one game left in the regular season.

 

"I honestly can't say enough about Hannah and Emily [Glasier], for that matter," McCann Tech coach Robin Finnegan said. "[Tatro was not going to be pitching every game. We had a rotation. But, unfortunately, some injuries and stuff hurt us, and she's picked up the slack.

 

"And Emily is getting rockets hit at her at shortstop, but they are my leaders. They are my captains. And they've got this team going in a positive direction, even when, sometimes, I have to be the bad cop."

 

The Hornets Tuesday came back from a 3-1 deficit midway through the game to earn a season split with their cross-city rivals.

 

Drury (13-4) struck first with two runs in the top of the third.

 

The Blue Devils got a leadoff double by Kaley Bushika, who moved up on a wild pitch and scored when Rivard reached on a one-out error. Rivard stole secondmoved up on a groundout and scored when Perry reached on an error to make it 2-0.

 

In the bottom of the inning, McCann Tech's Nora Kondel reached on a leadoff walk, went to second on Miranda Ranzoni's sac bunt and scored on a double by Glasier to cut the deficit in half.

 

The Hornets threatened to take the lead themselves in the inning, but Perry (six strikeouts, four walks) got the final out on a groundball to leave the bases loaded and preserve the 2-1 advantage.

 

Drury then added a run in the fifth. Again, it was Bushika who got things started, leading off with a single to left, stealing second and moving up on back-to-back groundouts to Glasier at short to make it 3-1.

 

McCann Tech answered with four runs in the bottom of the fifth.

 

Ranzoni led off by drawing a walk, and Shay Lawson singled to put the tying run on base. Back-to-back pitches to the backstop allowed Ranzoni to score. And after Glasier worked a walk, the Hornets had runners at the corners with nobody out, down 3-2.

 

Glasier took second base, and Svea Lawson smacked a single to left to drive in both runs and give her team a 4-3 lead.

 

Perry was able to get out of the inning without anymore damage, but McCann Tech added an insurance run in the sixth when Shay Lawson doubled home Kondel, who had reached on a leadoff single.

 

In the seventh, Drury got another leadoff base hit from Bushika. But Tatro swapped her out with the next hitter, who reached on a fielder's choice.

 

Rivard's infield single put the tying run at first, setting the stage for Svea Lawson's game-saving catch in right.

 

"I'm always nervous," Finnegan said. "I know how these guys can play, but sometimes we get into a funk. Like if we get an error, sometimes it snowballs in an inning. We always have one inning where that happens.

 

"But [assistant coach] Lou Moser and I have been working with the girls to have them say, 'When you make an error, that's yesterday. You've got to move forward.'

 

"And we made some errors today. And we left a ton of runners on base. But we always seem to hold our heads up. And they played seven innings today."

 

The Hornets finish their regular season on Thursday, Senior Day, against Southwick.

 

Drury is at Monument Mountain on Thursday, where it will try to correct a stretch of four losses in five games before it goes to next week's Western Massachusetts tournament.

 

"I think playing four games in five days is tough," Drury coach Michelle Darling said, referring to the Blue Devils' recent slate of rain rescheduled games. "They try to frontload [the schedule], but then you have rainouts. And it is what it is because you have to get all the games in by the 18th. 

 

"It's just hard on the kids."

 

And, Darling admitted, it can be hard to break the momentum of a losing streak when games are stacked on top of one another.

 

"I feel like it does snowball a little bit, so hopefully we can pull out of it," Darling said.