Pitchers fuel Mepham win streak

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Stepping into the batter’s box against Mepham softball is quite an adventure.

Just ask the top four hitters in Calhoun’s lineup: sophomores Olivia Roberto and Molly Quan, and seniors Lindsay Roman and Taylor Baumann. Last Saturday morning in a Nassau Conference A-I matchup between the neighboring rivals, each of them faced four different Lady Pirates’ pitchers.

All four hit the ball hard against Mepham senior Kayla Bourquin in the top of the seventh inning, but the Lady Colts couldn’t get the equalizer in a 3-2 defeat. Bourquin, who recorded two strikeouts and a popout in the sixth, gave up a leadoff single to Roberto before getting stellar defensive support from freshman Alanna Morse at third base — twice — and junior Stefanie Simone at shortstop to slam the door.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen come playoff time, but right now we’re pitching everyone and nobody is overworked,” Mepham coach Brenda Dolan said. “Kayla threw a complete-game earlier this week, but that’s not the norm. Using all four works for us. We’re still tinkering with things.”

The Lady Pirates (9-1), who used a similar approach last spring and reached the Nassau Class A championship series and fell to Carey in three games, moved into a first-place tie with MacArthur with six games remaining in the regular season. Calhoun, which blanked Mepham in the first meeting April 2 behind a perfect game by Roman, slipped to 5-4.

“We getting quality pitching and playing solid defense, but we haven’t reached our offensive potential yet,” first-year Lady Colts coach Veronica Widmaier said. “They didn’t do anything we didn’t expect today. They mixed up pitchers the first time also. We had some hits just not enough.”

Sophomore Kayleigh Roth pitched the first two innings for Mepham and left with a 1-0 lead thanks to a homer over the left field fence by junior Brianna Morse in the bottom of the second. Calhoun pulled even in the third when No. 9 hitter junior Hannah Aievoli smacked a leadoff double, advanced to third on Quan’s bunt single and scored on an error.

The Lady Colts took the lead in the fourth against junior Emma Greiner, who struck out four in two innings of work. Senior Lise-Anne Orlich had a leadoff single and eventually scored on a fielder’s choice off the bat of Aievoli to make it 2-1.

Greiner became the pitcher of record when the offense answered with two runs in the bottom of the fourth against Roman, a talented lefty who managed just four strikeouts after fanning 11 Lady Pirates in the aforementioned 2-0 victory.

With one out and Brianna Morse on second base following a leadoff single and wild pitch, Alanna Morse belted a two-run homer over the fence in right-center. The blast held up as Mepham, which hasn’t allowed more than three runs in any game, upped its conference winning streak to seven.

“We have a saying that goes “minor setbacks, major comebacks,” Dolan explained. “The girls do a great job of picking each other up if anything goes wrong.”