METHUEN – Running out of outs in the game and the season, junior Colleen McNamara stood tall.
Jayson Tatum tall.
With the Rangers trailing 4-3 in the sixth inning of their Division 1 tourney opener, McNamara lashed an RBI single, plating Bella Medeiros to tie the score at 4-4 and take the edge off a pretty anxious Ranger dugout.
“It was a relief. Everyone was a little tense,” said McNamara, a three-year varsity player. “We have so many seniors, so we want to go as far as possible with them. They contribute so much. They’re great. We just want to stay out here as long as we can.”
From there, freshman Melany Reyes and catcher Ella Hayes added run-scoring hits in the frame as No. 11 Methuen gritted through a 7-4 victory over Concord-Carlisle in the Round of 32, setting up a potential rubber match with No. 6 North Andover and its ace Brigid Gaffny.
North Andover hosts its Round of 32 game Sunday afternoon at 1, attempting to reserve a rematch with the Rangers, who knocked the Knights off in the opener of last weekend’s Methuen Invitational.
For the sweet-swinging lefty McNamara, the decisive bottom of the sixth was a test of character and will.
Twice earlier, she had gone down on strikes to Patriots’ southpaw Ella Fahey.
Change needed to happen. and McNamara, who came into the contest hitting .400 with 16 RBIs in the regular season, proved up to the task.
“I realized what I was doing wrong. I kept pulling my head out, so I made sure my head was down the whole time, the whole at-bat,” said McNamara.
“(The pressure) was on. I just knew I had to get up there and get the job done with the runner on base. I just needed to get her in, put it in play where I could.”
Senior Alexis Anthony earned the win in relief of classmate Mackenzie Yirrell, who walked off the mound with two outs in the fifth, leading 3-2, with runners on second and third.
A throwing error gifted the tying and lead runs for Concord-Carlisle, but Anthony picked up the last out of the frame via strikeout.
The scoreless sixth gave her teammates the opportunity, and McNamara’s band delivered.
Reyes, the promising ninth-grader, delivered the game-winning RBI, the biggest hit of her young Ranger career.
“That was huge!” said McNamara.
Anthony slammed the door, striking out the side in the seventh.
Methuen had forged to a 3-0 lead in the second when Ari Baez doubled and Bella Monsanto walked. Reyes bunted them up a base, before Hayes slapped a two-run base hit and moved all the way to third when the ball sneaked under the center-fielder’s glove. Yirrell followed with an RBI groundout.
Yirrell was sharp in the circle for Methuen, allowing only one earned run on four hits, striking out three.
“They did great. Alexis came in when she needed to. She did her job, and Kenzie pitched great,” said McNamara.