All season long, the Abington High softball team has started slow before eventually steamrolling to decisive victories. It was no different Sunday, when the Green Wave overcame an early deficit in its Division 4 Round of 32 matchup against Minuteman High School and ultimately subdued the Revolution, 11-1.
“It’s what we’ve been doing all season. It takes us a little bit and then we start wearing down the pitcher, and then they start stringing them together eventually,” said Green Wave Head Coach Jenna Olem. “It was a quality win. Everybody contributed. I always say the first game is the hardest one…Once they settled in and figured out ‘OK we can beat this team,’ they were ready to go.”
Standout sophomore pitcher Elsie Testa, making her first tournament start, struggled early with some command issues, as well as the heat. She walked the game’s first batter, and gave up back-to-back singles to load the bases before Minuteman’s Bella Olson knocked in Kaitlin Collins to take a quick 1-0 lead. The Revolution would also load the bases in fourth inning before Testa settled in to a groove and retired 11 of the game’s final 13 batters.
Testa admitted to having some nerves made worse by the unseasonably hot day. But she said she reminded herself she has a solid defensive team backing her up.
“I trust my team behind me. I know they can make the plays,” she said. “[I] just have to throw strikes and it will be fine.”
Testa finished the game giving up 1 earned run on 5 hits, with 7 strikeouts.
“She just finds a way to really battle,” Olem said about Testa. “She’s really, really tough. She’s mentally tough. She could have unraveled, but she got out of that bases loaded jam.”
Meanwhile, the Green Wave offense had a slow start, scratching out four hits over the first three inings. However, the team showed signs of figuring out Minuteman starter Alyssa Collins. After DiPietro started the third inning with a single, Testa moved her along with a picture-perfect bunt. Lead-off hitter Brenna Howley and Maddie McDonald followed with long flyball outs, and Kaisey Bailey ended the inning by hitting a screaming line drive that the Revolution’s first baseman ably snagged.
It was the fourth inning when Abington’s offense really came alive. Calli Pineau started the inning with a single to center and then stole second. Freshman third baseman Malia Goldberg — who had lined out sharply to first in the second inning — knocked in Pineau with a single to right, tying the game. After a pair of Green Wave strikeouts, DiPietro singled. Olen then sent up 8th grader Ella Franey to pinch hit for Testa. Franey rewarded the move by reading an off-speed pitch from Collins, pausing her swing, and then connecting on a grounder to second, which was bobbled, allowing Goldberg to score the go-ahead run. On the play, DiPietro advanced to third and then smartly stayed off the bag; The pitcher, assuming the ball was mounded, turned her back. That’s when DiPietro bolted for home to make the game 3-1.
Abington added to the lead in the bottom of the fifth, when Goldberg knocked in Katalina Chipman, who was running for Bailey after the senior catcher recorded her first hit of the day. Goldberg advanced on a bunt by sophomore left fielder Riley Agnew and a single by Jessica Blyth, and then came around to score when DiPietro walked with the bases loaded, giving the Green Wave a 5-1 lead.
Abington put the game far out of reach in the sixth. McDonald walked to start the inning , and Bailey followed with a single. When Pineau singled hard to center field, McDonald was able to score on an overthrow to third. Goldberg came up big again with her third single of the day to right field, knocking in Chipman who was again running for Bailey.
Agnew followed with an RBI of her own, driving in Pineau and making it an 8-1 game. But it was Blyth, the team’s senior first baseman, who put an exclamation mark on the day, taking a pitch from Collins to deep left-center field for a three-run home run, giving Abington an 11-1 lead.
Goldberg finished her first tournament start going 3-for-4, with 3 RBIs, and 3 runs scored. She said her approach was to she take what Collins was offering, which was often an outside screwball.
“I was a little nevrous in the first inning especially after they scored that first run,” she said. “But as soon as Callie scored I knew we would be OK.”
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