By Christopher Shaban
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
NEWPORT- Newport has a date at Plymouth University on Tuesday evening as they will take on the #1 seeded Prospect Mountain in Semi-Finals action after Tonya Sanchez pitched her team to a 5-3 win over Mascenic on Saturday.
“I am at a loss for words, that never happens to me but the desire this team demonstrated today was just incredible,” said Newport coach Sam McNeel after his team won to finally move past the quarterfinals. “It was the timely hits that helped move us on today,” said McNeel.
Those timely hits came in the Tigers’ first two innings as they scored twice with two down in both innings. Sanchez doubled and scampered home when Katie Sharon’s drive to centerfield found the ground. Then, in the second inning, Edon Ritondo bunted and ended up on third base after a throwing error. Natasha Melcher’s RBI smash to center made it 2-0 Newport entering the third inning.
The Viking’s Haley Flemming singled, then moved to second on a force out to first and was threatening to put a number on the board. Leah St. John hit a rope that had eyes for left field, but Newport’s Ritondo made a fantastic play. Ritondo tagged the runner and fired a strike to first to end the inning with a double play. “That play hyped me up, I didn’t even think, I just did my job,” said Ritondo.
Mascenic’s Kat Davis came on in relief of Lyla Buxton and was keeping the Tiger bats silent until Alexis Durgin brought the crowd to its feet with a mammoth blast over the left field fence to give Newport a comfortable 3-0 lead. “I knew it as soon as it left my bat, it felt so good,” said Durgin.
Newport beat Mascenic earlier in the season and McNeel knew this would be a battle as he and Vikings head coach Dutch Stauffeneker have locked horns for the past 9 seasons. “They are a really good team, they just knocked off Monadnock,’’ said McNeel. Those fears came true as Mascenic cut into the lead with a sharp Ella Pearson (3 for 3 on the day) single, which allowed Faith Wooster and Delaney Traffle to touch the plate with some great heads up baserunning, making it 3-2 Newport.
After Maddie Norris walked to open the 4th for Newport, Cassie Sanborn would single. Then, Norris and Sanborn would pull off a double steal putting Tiger runners at second and third. Melcher hit a drive to straight away center, where Traffle made the grab at the fence, allowing Norris to tag-up and score. Sanborn, however, was thrown out at the plate to keep Newport’s lead at 4-2.
Pearson would rope a double in the 6th to score Davis to close the gap, but Newport would grab an insurance run in their half of the inning. Sharron’s bunt put her on third after a throw sailed into right field and she ate some dirt with a headfirst slide into home for the Tigers 5th run.
Sanchez had a visit from McNeel in the final inning to go over a few things before Sanchez got a couple of easy infield ground outs and a pop-up to Durgin to end the game and grab a spot in the semi-finals.
“I was pretty calm all day, Emma O’Connor was incredible behind the plate and our defense was on point today,” said Sanchez.
“We didn’t waiver today, we played smart ball and didn’t hurt ourselves,” said McNeel.
This will be Newport’s second visit to a semi-final game according to McNeel, “Today was our best base running effort of the season. We had solid pitching, timely hitting and threw some leather around today. I am no longer the king of quarterfinals, we are heading on to the semi’s”.
#5 Newport will face undefeated #1 Prospect Mountain on Tuesday in a 7pm game with a trip to the championship on the line.
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