Lincoln bounced by Townies
Defensive mistakes doom Lions against EP
EAST PROVIDENCE – At least four or five times during his team’s Division I contest at East Providence on Wednesday night, Lincoln High head coach Kevin Palumbo would say either to himself or someone looking at him, “A tale of two cities, a tale of two teams.”
In short, he was referring to the attimes fantastic and other times mistake-prone Lions.
The Townies took advantage of stellar pitching from junior Taylor Babcock and senior Shelby Mello’s superb night at the plate to roll to an 8-3 victory before perhaps 50-60 fans at EP’s home diamond.
In all, Babcock mustered a two-hitter with four walks and a stunning dozen whiffs, while Mello finished 3-for-4 with a triple, two stolen bags, three RBI and two runs scored.
Other offensive mainstays for the hosts included junior Becca Landry (1-for-2, two walks, robbed bag, RBI, two runs); sophomore Paige Messier (1-for-3, double, walk, RBI, run); senior Sadie Patterson (1-for-4, double, RBI); junior Tanya Cooper (1-for-3, pass, run); and Babcock herself (0-for2, walk, sacrifice fly, RBI, run).
“It’s a tale of two cities; it’s feast or famine,” Palumbo stated again after a short chat with his kids in right field following the defeat, one that dropped the Lions to 2-10 in league action. “Either our pitcher (sophomore Molly Thibaudeau is spot on throwing strikes or she’ll issues a lot of walks.
“To be perfectly honest, we lost game on errors, two drop balls in the outfield and others,” he added. “The good news is we battled back, so that’s something to build on. I also had two freshmen and a sophomore starting, and all came up big for us.”
He referred to catcher Liz Hien (who went 0-for-2 with a pair of walks), fellow frosh/third baseman Amanda Conti (2-for-2, run); and sophomore Grace Swanson (2-for-4, RBI, run).
Senior Julia Lombardi chipped in a hit, a walk and a run, while Thibaudeau went 1-for-2 with two walks and an RBI.
In the circle, Thibaudeau surrendered eight hits, seven walks and eight runs, but only four were earned. She also fanned five Townies.
After leaving the bases loaded in the first, EP manufactured three runs in the second. Landry led off with a pass, then moved to second on a wild delivery. Messier then drilled an opposite-field double to right-center to plate her, and she came in after Mello whacked a triple to right, one that junior fielder Maddie Flaxington couldn’t track down.
Mello later scored on a Babcock’s sacrifice fly to Flaxington.
The Townies (9-3 overall, 8-3 league) tacked on another trio in the third after sending eight to the plate. In a nutshell, Cooper reached on an error, took second on junior Emma DaSilva’s bunt hit before senior Alyssa Guarino walked to fill the bases, then trotted home when Landry took a fourth ball.
Mello’s opposite-field scorcher to right-center plated Guarino and Landry to make it 6-0.
Undaunted, the Lions sliced the deficit to 6-2 in the fifth with a two-out surge; that came off of Cooper, who had justr replaced Babcock.
Lombardi walked and took third on Swanson’s opposite-field bash to right before junior Riley Riendeau received an intentional walk to juice the bags. Thibaudeau smoked an RBI single and Swanson scored on a wild offering to put the Lions (2-10) back in line for an upset.
Lincoln grabbed another in the sixth when Conti, Lombardi and Swanson all produced two-out hits, but that came after EP had increased its cushion to 8-3 in the back half of the fifth.
Lincoln 000 021 0 –3–7–3 East Providence 033 020 x –8–8–0 Molly Thibaudeau and Liz Hien. Taylor Babcock, Tanya Cooper (5), Babcock (7) and Cooper, Alyssa Guarino (5), Cooper (7). 2B – Paige Messier, Sadie Patterson. 3B – Shelby Mello.