U12 Magicians Off To A Great Start

Coach George Shapiro, who led Marblehead Softball Little League's Orioles to an undefeated season, is engineering another winning program as the Marblehead U12 Magician Softball team has earned wins in their first three games of the summer season.

In their first game, against the U12 Danvers Falcons on Thursday, the Magicians rallied for eight runs in the top half of the seventh inning to win 17-16 in what Shapiro said was "a total team effort." Sarah Cuffe pitched the complete game for Marblehead, while Sydney Ciulla and Meghan Tierney put in strong performances behind the plate.

Leading the way on offense were Ciulla and Alexa Brown, who each had three hits in the game. Toni Vinciarelli collected two hits and eight other girls hit successfully in the win. The game's biggest hits were doubles by Brown and Alexa Shapiro, both of which came with the bases loaded, which accounted for four of the Magician's runs.

Sara Bornstein in left field, Julia Stockwell in left-center field and Alexa Ehrenberg in centerfield all had great catches to back Cuffe's pitching. Also, Emily Messinger was solid at shortstop making several plays on hard hit balls.

The game ended in dramatic fashion as Bornstein caught a towering fly ball in foul territory just inside the fence with the tying run at second base. Elated, the girls celebrated in the middle of the diamond as the Magicians had their first victory of the season.

Their second game was another close contest, this time winning 8-5 against the U12 Triton Vikings on Monday. The Magicians got four innings of good pitching from Taylor Bouchard, followed by a strong relief effort from Kaylyn Countie, who struck out the last two batters of the game.

Brown was strong at the plate, knocking in three runs with two hits. Caroline Tucker and Countie both had run scoring singles in the win.

Messinger once again shined at shortstop. Shapiro said, "She showed tremendous range and a strong arm, making all the plays."

In their first home game, on Tuesday at Veterans School, the Magicians were in total control as they defeated the U12 Beverly Panthers, 13-4.

Beverly got on the scoreboard early, scoring in the first inning, but it was all Marblehead after that.

The Magicians loaded the bases in the first, and had runners on second and third in the second, but were unable to produce any runs until the third inning.

They exploded in the third scoring six times while batting through their order. Countie started off the inning with a towering triple, followed by an RBI-double from Messinger. The hits kept on coming as RBI-singles by Brown, Ciulla, Julia Stockwell, Cuffe and Caroline Ackerman brought the score to 6-1.

Countie went on to hit another long triple in the fourth and she was once again brought home by Messinger, who would also score in the inning making the score 8-2.

Beverly scored again in the fifth, making it 8-3, but the Magicians reserves would have their own explosive inning at the plate scoring five more runs. Tucker, Kaitlyn Bernato, Tierney, Olivia Hazlett and Alana Goodman all crossed the plate for Marblehead in the inning.

Countie dominated from the mound, striking out seven batters and only allowing two hits in six innings of pitching. Rachel Ulian pitched well in the seventh, striking out the final batter of the game.

The Magicians next play the U12 Reading Riptide II on Monday, July 12 at Joshua Eaton School in Reading. Their next home game is on Tuesday, July 13 against the U12 Lynn Wyoma Wildcats at Veterans School.