ACS Swat 16U Squad Tops Dalton in CRA Tourney
DALTON, Mass. – Rachael Wnuk hit a three-run double to help her team take a 9-0 lead, and the ACS Swat 16-year-old travel softball team earned a 12-7 win over Dalton on the first day of the 14th annual Dalton CRA Tournament.
Wnuk’s inside-the-park round tripper came in a six-run second inning for Adams-Cheshire-Savoy, which was able to survive with the win despite three-run rallies by the hosts in the third and fourth innings of the game that was stopped after five due to the tournament’s time rule.
“Huge hit,” ACS coach Lou Moser said. “I’ll tell you, I’ve coached that young lady since she was in coach-pitch division. She sees the ball very well. She’s become a really proficient hitter, going the opposite way when she knows she can.
“I’m super proud of that kid.”
It was a good evening all the way around for the ACS Swat program, which also saw its 12U team beat the Greylock Thunder, 7-2, in their tournament opener.
On Saturday morning, Dalton and the Berkshire Force have teams entered in the tournament’s 10U division. And the Thunder, Force and Swat all compete in the 12Us. The 16U age group features the Force, ACS Swat and Dalton. Semi-finals and finals for all three age groups are scheduled for Sunday starting at 8 a.m.
For the ACS 16s on Friday, Nora Kondel went 2-for-3 with a double and a pair of RBIs, Ava Cariddi was 2-for-2 with a couple of stolen bases, and Marlie Auger was 1-for-2 with a double and an RBI to help pace the ACS offense.
Kondel and Kaley Bachand each singled to drive in a run in a three-run bottom of the first for the designated home team.
In the second, Jaylee Moran worked a leadoff walk to start the six-run rally that gave the Swat control of the game.
Ella Bissaillon followed by reaching on an error, and Kondel’s double scored Moran and left a pair of runners on for Wnuk, who drove a ball to right and raced around the bases to make it 7-0.
“She’s a strong, strong kid,” Moser said. “She’s got a little bit of a knee thing she’s dealing with, but she runs like a deer.”
Cariddi and Auger each drove in a run to help finish the rally.
Dalton responded with three runs its next time to the plate.
Mallory Radwich delivered the big blow, a two-run single to right. She went to third on a ball to the backstop and scored on Grace Hunt’s RBI double.
After Kaylee Prew sat down ACS in order in the bottom of the third, Dalton scored three more runs in the top of the fourth.
Again, Radwich and Hunt each drove in a run.
In the bottom of the fourth, ACS got some insurance runs.
A one-out infield single by Cariddi and a walks to Bachand and Auger at the bottom of the lineup got things started. Bachand and Auger were at the corners when Moser called for a delayed double steal that they executed to perfection to make it 11-6, and Moran drove in Auger to make it a six-run game again.
In the top of the fifth, with the game clock expired, Dalton got an RBI single from Sydney Payson and had runners at second and third with two out when Moran made a diving catch on a looping line drive at second base to end the game.
“We’ve got a nice defensive team,” Moser said. “Our second pitcher [Moran] came in, she struggled a little bit, but she made a heck of a play at second base. I just told her, if she was still pitching, she wouldn’t have been in that position to do that. That’s where you’re going to get on Sports Center.”
Gabby Driscoll started and finished the game in the circle for ACS. She collected 11 strikeouts in four innings of work.
Dalton, which continues its tournament on Saturday morning against a team from Saratoga Springs, N.Y., will be looking to carry some of the momentum from the later innings on Friday night into the start of the game.
“I told the girls – I said sometimes I sound like a broken record, but we tend not to play and not be ready to play in the first two innings, but I love the fight,” Dalton coach Leo O’Keefe said. “They battled back.
“They’re a young team. We’ve got 11-year-olds on this team playing against 16-, 17-year-old girls out here. So we played hard. We fought back. We’ve got to be ready to play in the morning. We’ll be ready to go.”
Photos from this game to come.
