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Thursday Night
Denis, Pitney Propel Brakettes Past Concord Raiders
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| Adopt-a-Brakette sponsor Michelina Buchino and friends |
July 6 - The Stratford Brakettes swept past the Concord (MA) Raiders Thursday night, 5-2 and 7-0, as Denise Denis drilled three doubles in the doubleheader, and Lauren Pitney smacked two home runs in the nightcap.
Stratford raced to an early 4-0 lead in the bottom of the first, when Val Suto led off and reached on an error. Theresa Kane beat out a bunt single to put two on, and a walk by Denis loaded the bases.
Jolie Duffner reached on a fielder's choice comebacker, when the pitcher threw home to try to get the force. An errant toss allowed Suto to score, and all runners moved up a base. Alex Heinen followed and grounded to the right side, as second baseman Lexi Morris fielded the chopper and tagged Duffner out. Kane came home on the play for a 2-0 advantage, and Heinen was ruled out at first in what was a puzzling officiating decision, to say the least.
The umpires ruled that Duffner interfered with Morris, but that ruling should have been a dead-ball situation, in which only Duffner should have been called out and nobody else should have been allowed to advance.
After a lengthy delay, Pitney came up and was hit by a pitch. Briana Marcelino singled up the middle to send Denis across and push Pitney to second, making it a 3-0 game. Gabby Laccona lined a single to left to score Pitney, closing out the frame with a 4-0 Brakette lead.
Kane scored another run in the home second, after reaching on a single. Denis sent her to third with a double, and Kane came home on a fielder's choice grounder by Duffner to stretch the margin to 5-0.
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| Brakette Jolie Duffner, who will be a junior at Florida Atlantic University in the fall, sits with FAU head coach and Brakettes legend Joan Joyce, in town for the first annual Brakettes/Joan Joyce “Pitch and Putt” golf tournament to be held on Saturday. |
While it appeared at the time that the Brakettes might be on their way to another run-rule victory, the Raiders had other thoughts. Concord never allowed another run in the contest, and battled back to get on the board in the fourth inning.
Virginia Ryan earned a base on balls with one out in the top of the fourth, and moved up on a wild pitch. Megan Cooke then lined a double to right to score Ryan, narrowing the gap to 5-1.
The Raiders picked up another run in the sixth, when Morris and Catherine Kingman reached on consecutive singles to right. Ryan singled up the middle to send Morris home to pull within 5-2 of the Brakettes, although the Raiders would get no closer.
Brandice Balschmiter struck out ten in picking up the decision, while she scattering four hits. She earned win #186 in her career with the Brakettes, while improving to 7-1 on the season.
Suto contributed three singles in the contest, while Kane had two hits and scored twice.
After a scoreless first frame in the late game, the Brakettes got on the board in the bottom of the second.
Heinen led off with a double to center, and Pitney clobbered her first round-tripper of the night over the fence in left, putting the Brakettes up, 2-0.
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| Lauren Pitney is congratulated by Coach Botto for her second homerun of the game. |
Suto beat out a bunt single with one out in the third, and stole second to get into scoring position. With two away, Denis doubled to center, scoring Suto to extend the margin to 3-0. Duffner followed with a base hit to plate Denis, giving Stratford a 4-0 lead through three innings.
The Brakettes used the long ball to put the game away in the fourth stanza, with Pitney starting the fun. Her leadoff blast put the Brakettes up 5-0, but the local favorites were not done yet.
After Heather Holly reached on a two-out error, Casey Harding clobbered her first homer of 2018 over the fence in left. The two-run blast closed out the scoring at 7-0.
Kaysee Talcik (6-0) overpowered Concord throughout the tilt, as she fanned 16 batters on the night. She struck out the first five batters she faced, and only surrendered three hits.
Kingman led the way with a double for Concord, while Jill Chelton and Izzy Horton each had a base hit.
The Brakettes will be back in action Friday night with a 7:00 doubleheader against the Maryland Chill. All 2018 Brakettes games are live video webcast at www.brakettes.com.
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| Thursday, July 5th vs. Concord, MA, Raiders |
| First Game, 6:30 PM |
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Second Game |
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| Batteries: Raiders- Alexcea Glynos (L) and Virginia Ryan, Jackie Cherry (2), Megan Cook (5); Brakettes- Brandice Balschmiter (W, 7-1) and Megan Hodgdon |
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Batteries: Raiders- Erin Gallo (L), Alexcea Glynos (4), Megan Cook (4) and Izzy Horton, Virginia Ryan; Brakettes- Kaysee Talcik (W, 6-0) and Sam Rodriguez
Homerun: Brakettes- Lauren Pitney 2 (4), Casey Harding (1) |
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