Canton travel softball 10U Green off to strong start
By GuestAfter the COVID pandemic cut short the offseason training sessions in March and threatened to cancel the entire summer travel softball season, the girls of the Canton 10U Green team were finally able to get back on to the fields to practice in mid-June. After weeks of practice and still no clarity as to whether or not there would be a summer season the girls finally caught a break and were given the go-ahead to start playing games by Governor Baker on Monday, July 6.
The 10U Green team traveled to Quincy on Tuesday for their first game of the season. Despite new social distancing rules at the field which restricted the use of dugouts and requires the use of masks in some situations on the field, the girls pushed forward and were excited to be back in competition.
On the field the game was competitive at the start. Canton jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first inning only to have Quincy tie the score in their half of the inning. Canton pulled back out in front with three runs in the top half of the second inning and then shut Quincy down in the bottom of the second inning. Canton was unable to push any runs across the plate in the third inning. Quincy flexed their muscle in their half of the inning and put together three runs to tie the score 5-5.
After a quick motivational pep talk after the third inning by manger Kara MacEachern, the Canton girls decided to show Quincy everything they had worked on from October to March and it paid off with four runs in the top of the fourth inning and then 10 more runs in the top of the fifth. Quincy scored three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning and then the game was stopped due to time restrictions in a 19-8 victory for Canton.
Kennedy Burke earned the win as the starting pitcher, giving up five runs on two hits over four innings while striking out 10. Reilly MacEachern threw one inning of relief to close the game. Canton had eight hits in the game, including two apiece by Leia Gustavsen and Kennedy Burke and one hit each by Anna DiRamio, Keagan Gray, Natalie Hales and Lily Pepe.
Pepe almost had two hits as she did her best Dustin Pedroia impression early in the game by hitting a laser beam that would have been a sure triple but the left fielder from Quincy robbed her with a great catch. Vivian Roache was steady as usual as she played third base all game and was on the receiving end of a great throw from catcher Julie Murphy and applied the tag to catch a Quincy runner trying to steal third in the first inning.
On Thursday Cohasset came to Canton for a game at Tilden Field. The Canton girls carried the momentum from Tuesday into this game as they scored two runs in the first inning and one run in the second inning. Cohasset tied the score 3-3 with three runs in the top of the third, but Canton responded with four runs in the bottom of the third inning to open up a 7-3 lead. Canton scored four runs each in the fourth and fifth innings while shutting Cohasset down to earn a 15-3 victory.
Hales started the game in the pitching circle for Canton and earned the win, giving up three runs on two hits over three innings and striking out eight. Burke pitched the final three innings to close the door. Offensively, Canton had seven hits, led by MacEachern and Hales with two apiece. The Cohasset pitchers consistently pitched around Ashley DiRamio & Abby Pepe, who walked twice each and each had one RBI.
The 10U Green team travels to Milton and Hingham this week as they look to keep the momentum going.
Short URL: https://www.thecantoncitizen.com/?p=68572