MANCHESTER-BY-THE-SEA — One more win.
Following a convincing 8-1 triumph over Ipswich at Sweeney Park on Tuesday afternoon, that’s all that separates the Manchester Essex softball team from a Division 4 state tournament berth.
The Hornets won eight of their 20 games last spring but still qualified for the tournament via a top 32 slot in the rankings (No. 27). Getting an automatic bid this year with meat left on their regular season slate would be a welcome sight for head coach Frank Sarro and his group.
“We clinch it with 10 (wins) which would be nice to not be at the liberty of the power rankings; something different than the last two years,” said Sarro, his team now 9-6 and currently occupying the No. 25 seed in the D4 rankings. “We’ve had some really big wins this year. We beat Amesbury last week and we beat Newburyport. Those were two wins that we didn’t have last year so those were huge. And I thought the second game against Hamilton-Wenham was a big one; we needed that because we lost to them the first time around.”
Tuesday’s decisive victory over their Cape Ann League counterparts was the Hornets third straight after they toppled Amesbury (10-2) and Cristo Rey Boston (28-1) in recent clashes.
Against the Tigers, it all started with some stellar pitching from junior ace Anna Gardner. The versatile righty — who recently notched her 200th career strikeout — fanned nine more batters in the win, going the distance in the circle and finding her groove more and more as the day went on.
Gardner allowed just the one run in the second inning (a sacrifice groundout by Ipswich’s Elin Roberts), but rebounded well by yielding just one hit the rest of the game (5 total). She mixed up her pitches well and had the Tigers off balance throughout. When Ipswich did make contact, Manchester’s defense was nails in recording routine outs.
“She’s immense for us. A five-tool player, runs the bases great, batting average, can hit for power … she can do everything,” said Sarro. “And then on the mound she’s just been in complete control. Her changeup is really working, her rise is working; she has all her pitches working.”
As Sarro alluded to, Gardner can hit, too. She serves as the team’s leadoff batter and finished Tuesday’s game 1-for-3 at the plate while scoring twice and adding an RBI. She wreaked havoc on the base paths, using her speed to swipe bags and put herself in scoring position.
Gardner’s pep around the bags rubbed off on her teammates, too, as Manchester broke things open with some intelligent and opportunistic base running in the second and third innings. Cordeilia Riggs, Kendall Franklin and Gardner all crossed home on wild pitches in the second before Penelope Riggs added another run on a wild pitch in the third.
By that point, Manchester had a 6-1 lead it wouldn’t relinquish.
Sarro was also impressed with his team’s ability to play small ball, which was most evident when Lucy Parmelee laid down a textbook sacrifice bunt in the third to score Abby Aiello (1-for-4), who had reached on an infield single.
“All year we’ve been trying to put the bunt down and today I thought we did much better with it. I was impressed,” said Sarro. “(And) Anna’s base running was huge. We got at least two or three runs today on really good base running which really made a difference.”
Manchester had seized a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first when Penelope Riggs (2-for-3) mashed an RBI single to score Aliyah Doyon. The latter had a terrific day at the plate overall, going 3-for-4 with an RBI to lead the offense.
Ipswich knotted things up at 1-1 in the top of the second when Elin Roberts connected for a hard hit groundout that scored a run. But that was all the offense Ipswich was able to muster up against Gardner the rest of the day.
The Hornets added insurance runs in the fourth (Gardner made it all the way around after a slew of Ipswich errors) and sixth innings, with the latter score generated by an RBI single to left by Doyon.
Cami Friedrich took one for the team on multiple occasions, getting hit by a pitch twice to get on base. Kendall Franklin also got on base out of the seven spot.
It was a balanced performance for Manchester, which will look to punch its playoff ticket on Wednesday with a win at Rockport (4 p.m.).
“All throughout the lineup I thought we did a good job today. It was a total team effort,” said Sarro. “Sometimes we have one player that kind of takes control, gets four or five RBI and has a day. Today it was a complete team effort.”
Sports Editor Nick Giannino may be contacted at 978-675-2712 or ngiannino@northofboston.com.