LANGDON- Newport’s Lacey McNeel and Fall Mountain’s Chloe Vogel were locked in a pitcher’s duel Friday that was decided by the smallest of hits. With hits few and far between and both teams’ defenses playing lights-out, it took extra innings to decide this gem of a game, with Newport squeaking out a 1-0 victory in nine innings of play.
McNeel and Vogel were in no mood to give an inch, as both hurlers had tremendous days on the bump. Neither team managed to have a base runner reach third base for the first 8 innings, as the closest anyone got was on a deep double off the bat of Fall Mountain’s Savana Wilson in the 5th inning. Newport’s centerfielder, Kendall Hamilton, tracked the ball down and threw an absolute rocket to the Tigers third baseman Kelsey Wheeler as Wilson hit the dirt and applied the tag for a huge out.
With a decent crowd on hand, each inning grew more action packed as it was clear that a single run could decide the game. Coach McNeel decided to try to lay down some bunts but Vogel was keeping the Newport bats silent with superb fielding behind her. Newport’s Stacia Dame opened the top of the 7th with a solid single to center but was left stranded as 2- strike bunt attempt was fouled off on the third strike and FM catcher Allie Stoddart made a nice grab to snuff out the 7th. Stoddart singled to center in the Fall Mountain half of the 7th and stole second base, but she also was left stranded as McNeel got Zandy Fitzpatrick to ground out. The 8th inning was quiet as both hurlers put down the sides quickly, and then it was on to the 9th inning.
The Tigers McNeel’s led off the inning with a bunt that died on the third base line as the throw couldn’t beat her to the bag. McNeel’s bunt in the top of the 9th inning put her on base after convincing her coach to let her bunt. “I didn’t want to take the bat out of her hands but she made a convincing argument and I decided to let her give it a try,” said Newport head coach Sam McNeel after the game.
Hamilton then squared to bunt and her bat pushed the ball toward third and as Fitzpatrick came up firing to get the out at first, McNeel didn’t slow down rounding second and ended up on third with only one out. Newport’s Alyssa Burr stood in the batter’s box after getting the signs from her coach and quickly squared to bunt and placed it perfectly as McNeel scampered home without a throw to score the game winning run. McNeel made quick work to end the game by striking out the side to keep Newport’s undefeated season alive and well.
Newport’s Stacia Dame had an outstanding day behind the plate and drew praise from her coach and pitcher. “Fall Mountain was ready for us today and I was impressed with how they played but we needed to ‘send it’ today and we did,” said Dame after the game. Fall Mountain head coach Molly McManus was also impressed with both teams today. “It’s tough to lose a game like this but Newport is an outstanding team and I think we are a different, much-improved team than we were in the early part of the season… this was a playoff-type game today,” said McManus.
McNeel struck out 14 batters while allowing only 2 walks to grab the win, while Vogel ended up with 12 strike outs of her own, while only allowing 1 walk. “We may have underestimated Fall Mountain a bit today but that went away very quickly and realized that this was going to be a war today,” said McNeel after the game.
For Newport, Dame went 2-3 and McNeel and Burr each contributed a hit. For the Wildcats, Wilson, Nicole Limoges, Allie Stoddart, and Tess Marsden each had a hit.
Newport improves to 12-0 and travels to Conant on Wednesday. Fall Mountain drops to 5-7 and hosts Mondadnock on Tuesday.
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