WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- The young Mount Greylock softball team Saturday committed six errors, including one in the top of the seventh while clinging to a one-run lead against Taconic.
But when the Mounties needed a big play, their defense delivered.
With runners on first and second and nobody out, Taconic’s Chloe Wendling laid down a sacrifice bunt to the left side.
Mount Greylock third baseman scooped the ball, turned and fired to Jordyn Codding, who was covering third, to get the forceout. Codding then threw to second baseman Abbey Whitley to hang up a runner between second and third, and Whitley got the ball back to Codding, who laid down the tag for out No. 2.
Kamryn Sweet then retired the next batter on a swinging third strike to end the game and give Mount Greylock a 6-5 win and a 4-0 start to the season.
“Not much,” Codding said when asked how much the Mounties work on the pivotal play in practice. “That’s one of those once-in-a-blue-moon plays that you can’t really practice for. It’s just knowing what you have to do on the field at the right time.
“You have to be unified as a team. You have to trust everyone on the field to make a play like that in that situation.”
And maybe you have to ignore your coach just a little bit.
“To be honest with you, I was telling them to throw to first to get the out,” Mark Pierson said. “They threw to third to get the double play. So I’m very happy with what they did. Maybe the mask covered up what I was going to say.”
Sweet struck out five, walked two and allowed three earned runs in going the distance in the circle.
The Mounties’ offense exploded for six hits and four runs in the bottom of the sixth to overcome a 5-2 deficit.
Emma Newberry started the winning rally when she dropped a single into short left field with one out. Brodi Rosier followed with a single, and Taconic’s first error of the game on a throw from the outfield allowed Newberry to score and Rosier to go to third.
Sweet then helped her cause with an infield single that scored Rosier to make it 5-4. And Abbey Whitley followed with a popup just over first base on which Taconic second baseman Brenna McNeice appeared to make a diving catch, but the umpires decided after some discussion that the ball came out of McNeice’ glove and hit the ground, leaving the Mounties with runners at the corners and nobody out.
“Some things just don’t go your way,” said Taconic coach Jaclyn Candelet, who appealed to the umpires on the play.
“I think that did hurt us. I don’t think [the Taconic players] were really sure what happened because the girl caught the ball, and now the girls are running around the bases and we’re not prepared for that because we think we got the out. And then we don’t get up to make the next play and everything fell apart from there.”
Whitley moved from first to third on defensive indifference during the next at-bat, which ended up being the seventh strikeout of the game for Taconic pitcher Rylee Poronto.
With two out and two runners in scoring position, Mount Greylock eighth-grader Mia Filliault delivered a single to left that scored Sweet and put Whitley on third. Codding then singled up the middle to drive in Whitley with the winning run.
“It’s definitely a good feeling, knowing that I’m the only senior, that I can lift the team up and lift the girls up to be just as confident as I am,” Codding said.
Taconic scored an unearned run in the top of the first to start the game. Mount Greylock answered with two runs without the benefit of a base hit; Newberry and Rosier each walked and ended up scoring on a Whitley sacrifice bunt and a wild pitch, respectively.
Taconic retook the lead with two in the fourth thanks to Bella McDonald triple and a two-run single by Amelia Lesure to make it 3-2.
Taconic then tacked on runs in the fifth and sixth while Paronto stranded a combined four runners in the third, fourth and fifth innings to make it 5-2 going to the sixth.
“We’re one inning away from being that team,” Candelet said of Taconic (1-4). Three of its four losses have come by a combined six runs, including two straight one-run losses after Saturday.
“Like I tell them every game, it’s that one inning that hurts us. We’ve been hitting the ball, we’ve been making plays. It’s contagious. One person makes an error and it just goes through everybody else. It’s just like hitting. One person hits, and everybody hits.”
Taconic hosts Mount Everett on Tuesday afternoon.
Mount Greylock will look to continue its opportunistic play and cut down on its miscues on Monday when it travels to Dalton.
“We are inexperienced, and we haven’t really played the better teams until today,” Pierson said. “I kind of figured there might be a few mistakes, and fortunately we made enough plays at the end to win the game.
“This week, we’ve got Wahconah, Hoosac and Pittsfield. There are no easy ones. It’s all hard after this.”
Photos from this game here.
