When Gloucester sophomore ace Abby Noble is on her game, there’s not much an opposing team can do to rattle her.
Visiting Cardinal Spellman learned that the hard way in Wednesday afternoon’s Division 3 Sweet 16 battle, as Noble tossed a complete game masterpiece to help her squad to a 4-2 victory.
Noble took a no-hitter into the final frame before C-S finally got to her for a pair of hits and a pair of runs, but the standout pitcher bore down from there to strike out the final batter and send her team back into the Elite Eight for the second straight season.
“Abby was just dominant,” said GHS manager Bryan Aiello, his seventh seeded team improving to 19-3. “They started to hit her a little in the last inning, but that’s after they saw her three times.
“But she did very well,” he continued. “She kept them at bay and it just gives the team confidence knowing she can go out there and shut a team down like that.”
With Noble on cruise control for much of the afternoon — she fanned 11 batters in all and yielded just one walk — the Fishermen offense did more than enough to help her out.
The hosts struck early, too, as Emma Carrapichosa singled on a line drive through the infield in the first inning to score Samantha Tucker, who had reached on an error. The Gloucester bats produced two more runs in the fourth, as Aleena Brown hit a fly ball to shallow left field that was dropped, allowing Olivia Madruga (reached on error) to come home. Angela Russo then joined the party with a single up the middle to send Adriana Orlando (who was courtesy running) home.
Gloucester certainly capitalized on some Cardinal Spellman errors (they had four on the day), but putting the ball in play was key and the hosts really swung the bats well all contest.
“The goal was to get out to a lead, which we did, and I thought the offense put good at bats together all day,” said Aiello. “Their pitcher was good, she shut us down in stretches, but we were able to put balls in play, get timely hits and that was enough.
“I tell the girls this all the time, but in games like these where it’s two evenly matched teams with good pitching, defense and hitting, it’s usually the team that makes the least amount of mistakes that’s going to win,” added the coach. “And that was us today. They made pretty much every play; defense was big.”
Gloucester would add one more insurance run in the fifth when Madruga singled to score Orlando, who was again pinch running. This time she was on the base paths for Carrapichosa, who had mashed a two-out double to get things started in the frame.
Carrapichosa, a Northeastern Conference all-star, has been huge in the playoffs thus far. Batting out of the cleanup spot, the senior standout drove in a pair and scored a run in Monday’s 5-0 win over Medfield and she added a team-high two hits in this one, including the two-bagger.
“She’s just putting the bat on the ball and making things happen,” said Aiello. “When you put the ball in play it finds a way to drop sometimes, and she did that perfectly again today.”
Brown added a hit for Gloucester while Janessa Tavares scored a run as a courtesy runner. Gloucester made just one error (in the seventh inning) all afternoon and came up with some big plays whenever C-S did manage to put a ball in play off of Noble.
Madruga, the team’s starting catcher, deserves a ton of credit for managing a great game behind the plate as well.
Now it’s back to the state quarterfinals for Gloucester, where it’ll head to No. 2 Norton on Saturday (time TBA).
“Going back to the Elite Eight two years in a row, the girls earned this. They work hard, very hard all season so I’m proud of them that they got it done,” said Aiello. “The ultimate goal is let’s get beyond, let’s get a state championship. We’re going to give it a run, that’s for sure.”
Sports Editor Nick Giannino may be contacted at 978-675-2712 or ngiannino@northofboston.com.