By Meghan Foley
Hometown Weekly Staff
The varsity softball team recently had a big win over the Natick Redhawks. Going into the game, the Rockets had a record of 6–2 and the Redhawks 3–9.
The first inning was scoreless, and Needham held Natick to no runs again in the top of the second inning. Starting off the bottom of the second, Cheng made it to second after a hit deep into the outfield that a Redhawk was unable to catch. O’Hearn was walked, so there were runners on first and second when Muzikant hit a ball into the outfield, running in Cheng and putting O’Hearn on third and herself on first. While Schmidt was at bat, the Natick catcher threw a pass to the third baseman, but it went too high, giving O’Hearn the opportunity to run in and Muzikant to advance to second. Schmidt hit a single, but, not forced to move, Muzikant waited at second, and when she saw Natick try to get Schmidt out, Muzikant then ran to third. With runners on second and third, Peters was walked, loading the bases. The next batter was out on a pop fly, and Navales went to the plate.
Navales’ hit was a bouncing ground ball that the Redhawks had difficulty catching, so all three runners on base ran in, and Navales made it to third, quickly racking up points for a 5–0 score with only one out. Kirshner followed with a double to run in Navales, making the score 6–0. Kirshner stole third, and Kraft was walked. Kraft stole second and Cheng was walked, loading the bases again. O’Hearn’s hit was well-placed into an empty area in the outfield, running in Kirshner, Kraft, and Cheng while putting herself on second, making the score a daunting 9–0 for the Redhawks.
Next, Muzikant put herself on second and ran O’Hearn. Schmidt earned a single, and Muzikant moved to third. Peter's ground ball ran into Muzikant and put runners on first and second, up 11–0 with still just one out. However, Natick was able to strike out the next two batters and end the 11-point inning.
The first Natick batter was out after Needham’s pitcher, Cheng, grabbed the ground ball and passed it to O’Hearn at first base. They got the second out on the next batter when Kirshner got a ground ball and also sent it to O’Hearn. A Natick player got a single, but Cheng struck out the next batter. However, the Rockets also had a short turn at bat and soon returned to the field to begin the fourth inning.
The Redhawks quickly got two singles, but at shortstop Kirshner got the ground ball hit by the third batter, quickly grabbing it and tossing it to third baseman Silverman, just beating the runner for Natick’s first out of the inning. With runners on second and third, the next batter’s ball went to Cheng, who quickly scooped it up and tossed it to the catcher, Schmidt, who was able to tag out a runner sliding into home. On the next play, Schmidt saw a Redhawk attempting to steal second. Kirshner quickly got herself on the base, and Schmidt launched a pass to her. Kirshner tagged the runner and gave the Redhawks their third out.
During the top of the fourth, Stanton hit a single, but the Redhawks were able to get a double play after the first baseman caught a hit by Karp. Up next, Dabuzhsky hit a double and was able to get the Rockets’ 12th run after a single by Silverman. Silverman would be run in by Navales, who ended up on second base. Up 13–0 with one runner on second and two outs, Murray stepped up to the plate. Murray first hit a foul ball before crushing the second hit, sending it beyond the fence and earning a home run. Navales ran in first, and the bench gathered by the plate to cheer on Murray as she ran in for the Rockets’ 15th point. Feldman went on to hit a single, but the Rockets got their third out after the Redhawks caught a pop fly from the next batter.
At the top of the fifth inning, the Rockets had the chance to end the game due to the mercy rule. Natick hit a single with their first batter, but Dabuzhsky caught a pop fly on the next play. Kirshner grabbed a ground ball and quickly passed it to Feldman for an out at second, though the batter was able to make it to first. With runners on first and second, a Redhawk was able to hit a triple, putting Natick on the board at 15–2. The next batter hit a hard ground ball that Kirshner grabbed, backing up a teammate whose glove it had originally shot out of, but the single allowed for a Redhawk to score their third run and put one runner on first. Feldman picked up a ground ball and passed it to Kaplan at first base for Natick’s third out, ending the game with a 15–3 win.
Speaking about upcoming games on their schedule, Head Coach Jamie Nix said, "The Baystate League, I’ve been telling them all year long, there’s no kind of easy game; you’ve got to work hard in practice, and that translates into the game, and I think that’s been showing. We've been working really hard on our baserunning and hard on our hitting; we’ve been hitting the ball all over the park and getting really key contributions from everybody. We had hits from almost 17 different players today, so that’s a good sign for the hard work they put in.”
The Rockets’ schedule can be found online at arbiterlive.com.
