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Young Commodore softball team falls to BFA-Fairfax in D-II title game
POULTNEY — On Friday night in Poultney, the No. 3 Vergennes Union High School softball team’s Division II title bid came up just short — as did a Commodore sixth-inning home-run bid that would have tied the game — against undefeated No. 1 BFA-Fairfax.
The Bullets improved to 19-0 with a 4-1 victory over VUHS and won their second straight D-II crown, while the Commodores finished at 15-5 for the third straight spring advancing deeper into the playoffs than the season before.
VUHS Coach Mike Sullivan said the Commodores had accomplished a lot in the past two months.
“Our goal from the beginning was to be here at the end. The girls really worked hard all season long… a lot of focus, a lot of hard work, and it paid off for us,” Sullivan said. “We just fell a little bit short tonight.”
BFA sophomore ace Kayla Mathieu came through on Friday for her team: She tossed a two-hitter, walking just one and striking out five while allowing only an unearned run.
The Commodores made consistent contact, but had trouble driving the ball against Mathieu, who got 11 outs on pop-ups and fly balls with only a few of them being well struck.
“She does make the ball move, that’s for sure,” Sullivan said. “We talked about that a lot. We told the kids to stay up in the box as much as possible and try to hit the ball before it makes its breaks.”
Mathieu’s teammates in the field backed her with strong defense: Third baseman Brooke Naylor made good plays to throw out VUHS sophomores Kayla Charron and K.C. Ambrose on bunt attempts, and center fielder Marin Varney made a running catch on freshman Felicia Armell’s liner to right center leading off the sixth and hauled in junior Dani Brown’s line shot in the second. Naylor also drilled a critical first-inning single.
VUHS junior pitcher Emilee Trudo threw well overall, allowing five hits and two walks while striking out seven in six innings. But after BFA leadoff hitter Danielle Russin beat out a bunt in the first inning, Trudo tossed a wild pitch that allowed Russin to reach second.
Sierra Benoit then sacrificed Russin to third with one out, and Trudo walked Kaitlyn Barnack, who stole second. Trudo whiffed Mathieu, the cleanup hitter, but Naylor lined the first pitch she saw to left field to give BFA a 2-0 lead.
Other than a two-out walk to Varney in the second, neither pitcher allowed anything until the fourth, when VUHS junior Taylor Paquette broke up Mathieu’s no-hit bid with a ringing two-out triple down the left-field line. Mathieu ended the threat by getting the only senior in the VUHS lineup, catcher Cat Chaput, to line softly back to the mound.
BFA then added a run in the bottom of the inning. Naylor doubled to lead off, and after VUHS third baseman Tamara Aunchman made a nice running catch of a bunt attempt, Amanda Varney blooped a double to right field. Naylor, who held up to see if the ball would be caught, scored on a throwing error on the play, but the run became earned when the next batter hit what would have been an RBI grounder.
BFA added its final run in the fifth, when Barnack singled with two out and came around to score on an outfield error on Mathieu’s deep fly ball. That was the second and final miscue in an overall strong VUHS defensive effort that included three Chaput snares of foul balls.
In the top of the sixth, the Commodores began to hit Mathieu harder. After Armell lined out to center, Charron drilled another shot to about the same place. This time the Bullets could not hold onto a running catch, and Charron reached second on the error.
A wild pitch moved her to third with two outs, and Charron trotted home when Trudo lined a single up the middle. Paquette then drew a walk to put runners on first and second and bring up the Commodores’ leading RBI producer, Chaput, as the potential tying run.
Chaput got ahead in the count, and Mathieu came in with a fastball. Chaput connected, sending it high and deep to straightaway left into the damp night air. But BFA left fielder Sara Rainville moved back and settled under it just in front of the fence, and the best VUHS threat of the night died in her glove.
Sullivan said he believed all along the Commodores would begin to hit Mathieu.
“We were expecting to catch up to her after a little bit,” Sullivan said. “Add another foot to that hit and it was a tie game.”
Trudo made quick work of BFA in the bottom of the sixth, but Mathieu did the same to the Commodores in the top of the seventh, and the Bullets became the one team in D-II to win its final game.
Sullivan made three points afterward: VUHS won 15 games playing in the Metro Conference, which includes many tough D-I teams; the Commodores fought back hard from a 4-0 deficit; and eight of nine starters are projected to return in 2014.
“There’s no giving up in this bunch here. They’re going to fight until the end,” Sullivan said. “They’re a great bunch of kids. They have great hearts. They know what it takes. Unfortunately we just fell a little bit short tonight. And I’m already looking towards next year.”
And as one fan shouted to them after the game, they had plenty to be proud of this spring.
“Keep your heads up,” he said. “You represent Vergennes well.”
COMMODORES, 4-0
The Commodores reached the final by blanking perennial D-II power and No. 2 seed Lyndon, 4-0, in a Wednesday semifinal.
Trudo sparked VUHS by tossing a two-hit shutout and contributing a key hit in the Commodores’ four-run fourth inning.
Trudo struck out eight and walked none while going the route in the third-straight outstanding pitching performance for VUHS in the playoffs: It followed Brown’s one-hitter in the first round and Paquette’s quarterfinal two-hitter. Trudo allowed those two hits in the first two innings, and finished the game by retiring 16 straight batters.
In the Commodores’ big fourth inning, Aunchman launched an RBI triple and Trudo poked a two-run single, two of the Commodores’ nine hits off losing pitcher Kelsey Croft, who struck out seven.
Lyndon (16-2) had reached, but had lost in, the past two D-II finals, and had reached the title game in eight out of the past nine seasons before the visiting Commodores knocked them off.
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