By Tom Haley
THE RUTLAND HERALD
SPRINGFIELD,Vt. — Izzy Belisle, Ari Cioffi, Kayla Quelch, Madison Knight, Katrina Welch and Uxue Muguerza celebrated their Senior Night on Wednesday evening by doing something nobody else has done this season — beat Proctor.
Springfield got a sterling outing in the circle from Belisle in edging the Phantoms 4-2 under the lights of Bill Robinson Field.
But much of the game belonged to Belisle’s adversary Cadence Goodwin as she and her Proctor teammates had the lead heading into the bottom of the fifth.
The Phantoms had a 2-1 lead when the Cosmos scored three in the fifth.
Cioffi led off that inning by legging out an infield hit and Jill Muther followed with a single to short left. Mckenzie Sidler singled sharply up the middle to get the tying run home and the winning run scored on an error.
“It feels really good. I did not think before the game that we were going to beat them,” Belisle said.
Belisle said it wasn’t easy pitching with her team behind most of the night and that when the Cosmos took the lead, it gave her a much different feeling.
“It makes a huge difference (to me) if we are leading,” Belisle said. “It makes my mental state a lot better.”
Cioffi said Senior Night was a motivating factor.
“It was like, we just can’t lose, we can’t lose this one,” Cioffi said.
“Our team has really turned it around in the last few games,” Springfield first-year coach Tim Considine said.
“Ari, Izzy and Jill Muther (a junior) are our captains and I put a lot of them.”
Considine said the Cosmos were composed despite trailing for most of the night.
“They actually seemed relaxed. They know that one inning is not going to win the game,” Considine said.
The Phantoms pushed runs across in the first and third innings to take a 2-0 lead.
Jenna Davine reached on an infield error in the first, winding up on second base. She stole third and raced home on Goodwin’s ground out.
Again, Davine set the table in the third by singling to left. Goodwin plated her with her second RBI, shooting a booming triple into the right-center gap.
The Cosmos cut the lead in half in the fourth when Maddie Clark walked and trotted home when Lexi Tewksbury walked with the bases loaded.
Goodwin piled up the strikeouts, finishing with nine.
Belisle fanned six. The centerpiece of her complete game was not hurting herself with walks. She gave up only one in winning her four-hitter.
The Phantoms’ best chance to do some late-game damage came in the sixth when Goodwin led off the inning with a walk and Laci French singled up the middle to give them two runners aboard with only one out.
But then the Phantoms had the misfortune of an inning-ending double play. Angel Traverse hit a rocket at first baseman Muther who gloved the smash and stepped on first to double up courtesy runner Aleea Richardson who had no time to react.
The Phantoms saw their record fall to 11-1 and the Cosmos improved to 7-8.
tom.haley @rutlandherald.com
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