Make that four wins in a row for the Orange 11-12 year old girls Little League All Stars as they trampled Hamden 23-0 Tuesday night in the District four round robin playoffs at Stankye Field. Coach Frank Koshes’ girls banged out 17 hits against winless Hamden (now 0-4) and with this victory, undefeated Orange (4-0) guarantees itself a berth in the best two-out-of -three divisional Finals that gets underway Friday at 5:30 p.m. against North Branford at Stankye Field.
The winners started off slowly getting only one run in the first inning. Katie Koshes singled, stole two bases and scored on a passed ball. Much like Chicken Little, the sky began to fall in on Hamden in the second inning. Kara Kachmar reached base on an error and Jenn Thomas doubled her over to third base. Koshes drove in both runners with her second base hit of the contest. Now leading 3-0, Orange blew the game wide open with successive RBI base hits from Cassidy Kirby, Teresa Marchitto, Martha Zhang, and Thomas. By the end of the second inning, the locals had stacked up a commanding 8-0 lead.
Things went from bad to much worse for Hamden in the bottom of the third inning as Orange raked its pitchers for 14 runs. In addition to Kiley Stackpole’s two-run single, Kachmar, Thomas, Zhang, Stackpole, Kachmar again, and Emily Mullins all contributed run-scoring base hits.
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Koshes ended up with two singles and three RBI. Stackpole was 3-3 with a trio of runs batted in. Zhang and Thomas each chipped in with three hits and a pair of RBI. Kachmar singled twice and also drove in two runs.
While her teammates were battering Hamden pitching, Kirby posted her second win of the playoffs. She allowed only three hits, while striking out six and walking one in the Mercy Rule-abbreviated four inning contest.
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According to Coach Frank Koshes, “Cassidy got into an early groove and stayed there. She threw hard, made quality pitches, and hit her spots. Our defense made good plays behind Cassidy and our bats finally came to life. We showed patience at bat and that paid off as we hit the ball really well.”
Orange preserved its shut out following a Hamden hit, the runner tried to score from third base on a fly ball but was cut down on perfect throws from Kachmar to Koshes and on to Zhang, who slapped the tag on the sliding Hamden runner.
Round robin pool play ends tonight with Orange hosting 2-2 Milford in a 7:30 p.m. game at Stankye Field.
