There’s an old saying that says offense sells tickets, but defense wins championships.
For the Gloucester softball team, both of those things came to fruition in Monday afternoon’s Division 3 state tournament opener against visiting Wilmington.
Senior ace Cameron Carroll went the distance in the circle, the defense made some huge plays behind her, and the Fishermen got hot at the plate en route to a convincing 7-2 victory.
Gloucester now moves on to face No. 2 seed Apponequet Regional (18-4) in the Sweet 16 on the road Wednesday afternoon at 4 p.m.
“I thought we had a couple of miscues in the first inning on the bases, but they recovered well and really what it came to was they got the bats working early and often,” said Gloucester coach Bryan Aiello, his team now 11-10. “It was up and down the lineup; they did their job, they executed everything they needed to do on offense and then the defense for the most part was stellar.”
Carroll — who boasted a 2.38 ERA in the regular season — opened the game with a quick 1-2-3 first inning and got out of a bit of a jam in the second before Gloucester plated its first run on an RBI double from Laila Ciaramtaro in the bottom of the frame. If it weren’t for a nice double play from Wilmington to end the inning, the Fishermen may have done some more damage there, too.
Carroll remained sharp in the third before the Gloucester bats really got going. Mackayla Allen — who turned in a terrific defensive game as well — got things going with a hard hit triple to right center. Emma Carripachosa sent her home with an RBI single to center, Jenna Connelly followed suit with an RBI single of her own, and Olivia Madruga did the same with a nice piece to left.
Just like that it was a 4-0 game and Gloucester was off to the races.
In the bottom of the fourth, however, Wilmington threatened to make things interesting. Carroll got the first two batters out, but issued three straight walks thereafter to load the bases. A passed ball then sparked the runner on third to make a play for home, but Gloucester catcher Olivia Madruga scooped the ball up and beat the runner to the plate for the tagged out to end the inning.
It was a big play at the time and allowed Gloucester to regain momentum in a hurry.
“She got a nice bounce off the fence and then was just heads up enough to know she could take it herself and make the play,” Aiello said of the tag by Aiello. “It was a heads up play by her for sure.”
The Fishermen made Wilmington pay in the bottom of the fourth — and it was Carripachosa who came through yet again. The talented hitter batted .367 with four homers and 23 RBI this spring and remained hot on Monday. In this particular inning she cashed in with an RBI single to center that scored Allen, who had doubled to left.
Carripachosa finished the game 3-for-3 with a double, two RBI singles and a walk.
“Emma was big at the plate; she’s been big all year,” said Aiello. “She’s been our most consistent hitter all year and we’re happy it’s continuing in the postseason.”
Gloucester would add a pair of insurance runs in the sixth. Ava Paone tripled to right and scored on a passed ball while Tasara Frontiero reached on a single and later scored on an error.
Wilmington finally got on the scoreboard in the seventh on an RBI infield single from Eva Boudreau and another knock from Erin McCarthy. But Carroll shut the door from there, getting her final batter to foul out to the third basemen to seal the victory.
Coach Aiello had made a trip to the mound in that frame, offering some words of wisdom to get out of there with the win.
“I just told them ‘Look, I don’t care what this batter does the only she can’t do is hit a 7-run home run’,” he said. “So just pound the strike zone, we’re not trying to hit corners, I want the ball in play and that was that. Let them put the ball in play, we just need one out and we’re good. And that’s what they did.”
Carroll struggled with command at times but did a great job working her way out of it. She finished with four Ks against seven walks. Madruga was terrific behind the plate, Julia Carrancho made some huge catches in center field, including one right near the fence that almost certainly would’ve scored a run, and Allen was tremendous at short stop. The latter made a huge play in the seventh inning to track down a ball in shallow left for a key out.
“Julia in center field, oh my god she made some big catches out there. That was huge,” said Aiello. “And Mackayla played very well offensively and defensively. She had that nice play in short when the pressure was on and they were starting to get a little momentum, to run into the outfield and take the ball before it could drop, that was just a big play at a big time. It’s also something we’ve been working on in practice, that exact play, so when you see them execute in a game what you’re working on in practice, that’s a highlight for me.”
Gloucester, which finished with 11 hits in all, will have its hands full in the next round at Apponequet, a team they know little about, but they’re excited for the challenge.
“We don’t know anything about them whatsoever. We’ve never played them in the history of GHS I believe,” said Aiello. “So we’ll get one day to prepare tomorrow, head out there Wednesday afternoon and go from there.”