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Photo Kevin Mullaney
Provincetown senior Holly Rose faces a tough defensive player as she slides for home. |
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Lady Fishermen nearly topple powerhouse Nantucket
By Kevin Mullaney
Banner Correspondent
Graduating senior Melissa Lomba pitched the best game of her career and the PHS softball team played the best game of their season, nearly knocking the powerhouse Nantucket team out of the tournament on the island Sunday, an oh-so-close 4-3 loss in nine innings. The loss follows Thursday’s 14-9 victory over South Shore in the preliminary round.
Lomba gave up six hits and four runs in 7 2/3 innings, striking out eight and walking three, almost a mirror to the Nantucket pitcher’s performance.
Down 2-0, catcher Sara Roderick put Provincetown on the board with an RBI single in the third inning, driving home Simone Rose, and the lady Fishermen took the lead with two runs in the fifth. Simone Rose drove in a run with a squeeze bunt, scoring Molly Costa to tie the game. Third baseman Holly Rose doubled and scored on a bunt single by Roderick. Provincetown led 3-2 and surely made Nantucket sweat bullets, until the Whalers tied the game in the bottom of the sixth. The Lady Fishermen threatened with two runners in scoring position in the seventh, and Costa made a highlight-film running catch and the throw for the double play to stop a Nantucket rally and send the game into extra innings. Nantucket won in the eighth, with a two out single.
Roderick was 2-for-4 at the plate with two RBI’s. Simone Rose went 1-for-3 with one run and one RBI. Holly Rose went 1-for-4 and scored a run.
“It was amazing, THE best game they ever played,” said PHS coach Meaghan Eckhardt. “Melissa was perfect,” she said of the senior right-hander. As for the fielding, “Omigosh,” she said. “Sammy Lomba made a diving catch for the third out one inning, Chelsea Roderick caught a hard line drive. Both times, she said, Nantucket was expecting it to be their breakout inning. “Sara Roderick was on the money behind the plate, maybe only two pass balls all game.”
“We belonged on the field with Nantucket,” she said of the still undefeated (19-0) Whalers, who beat them 10-1 last time. “They were scrapping to get to the plays. Molly Costa was amazing. She has steadily improved and has earned her position.” Holly Rose, she said, “really has stepped up as captain. Melissa [Lomba] leads by example.”
They’ve really been a strong team,” she said, “and something clicked in their heads. They left it all out there.”
“I don’t want to give myself too much credit,” she said of the team’s play in her first season at the helm. “The girls were receptive to me and [assistant coach] Mike Manley was so helpful. He was all our strategy.” Provincetown ends the season 9-7.
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PHS Sports
Nauset Sports |
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Jun 7th, 2007