Laying Down the Law: Catcher, Errors Lead Mepham Softball Past Kennedy

The Mepham Lady Pirates' bats took advantage of a couple of costly errors from the Kennedy Lady Cougars and won Tuesday morning's non-league matchup 7-1 at Mepham High School.

Lady Pirates pitcher Victoria Gunnels pitched six strong innings, allowing five hits and four walks, while striking out 10.

The Lady Pirates put up three runs in the first inning. Freshman Toni Valeriano came around to score on a fielder's choice. Shannon McLean followed up the fielder's choice with a single to left, which made its way past the left fielder. Gunnels and McLean came around to score on the play.

In the third innnng, Valeriano singled to right and made it to third on an error by the right fielder. Mepham catcher Claudia Law hit a sacrifice fly on the next pitch to drive in the run.

Kennedy's Heather Hulkower led off the top of fourth with a double. Catcher Stephanie Bauman followed the lead-off hit with a walk, but the Lady Cougars could not get the runs home as Mepham recorded a ground ball out before Gunnels struck out the remaining two batters.

Marina Monello hit an RBI double in the bottom of the fourth inning before Law drove in two more runs with an RBI single to extend the Mepham lead to 7-0.

Kennedy's Brittany Venezia drew a bases-loaded walk in the top of the sixth to drive in the Lady Cougars' only run.

Gabriella Calia allowed four earned runs in six innings for Kennedy. Hulkower led Kennedy with two hits on the day.

Valeriano went 1-for-1 with two runs scored, McLean went 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored, and Law went 2-for-3 with three RBIs.

“We did capitalize on a couple of errors, but we also got some timely hits too, which was good," Mepham head coach Mike Muscara said. "... We got some kids that got hits at some key times and we played good defense.”

Score: Mepham 7, Kennedy 1

Records: Mepham 6-3 (8-3); Kennedy 6-2 (6-4)

Hero: Mepham got a lot of big contributions, but Law's bat broke things open and gave the Lady Pirates a solid lead.

“She’s huge. … You can count on her driving that run in," Muscara said about his catcher. "Between the three of them -- Gunnels, McLean and Law -- those are our big RBI guys. We need the to drive in runs. If they don’t drive in runs and get on base, we’re in trouble.”

Turning Point: The errors didn't help the Lady Cougars' cause, but Law's two-RBI single in the fifth inning gave the Lady Pirates a sizable lead.

“Our team was really focused. The camaraderie was good," Law said. "We didn’t make any errors in the field, so that’s always good because once you start to make errors they’re contagious. We didn’t have any this game.”

Quotable: “I said to them, ‘Errors are going to happen.’ I’m just really big on the mental part of the game," Kennedy head coach Katie Speiss said. "We can’t hang our heads. We can’t think that the other team is going to beat us. We have to know that we are capable of beating every single team.”

Bottom Line: The Lady Cougars are currently in second place in Conference AA-II and will be in a real battle over the final month of the season to secure a playoff spot.

Kennedy got a good effort on the mound from Calia, but the errors hurt and the team failed to get runners in when the situations arose in the first, fourth and sixth innings.

“Our offense wasn’t there today," Speiss said. "Between the two errors and our offense not scoring runs, we beat ourselves today. … They let themselves lose, and not necessarily let the other team beat us.”

The Lady Pirates were focused from the start and did not make an error in the field. The non-league game against a strong Kennedy team was a good way for Mepham to prepare for its remaining league schedule. 

“We were focused and we were having fun, and that’s the main point," Law said.

Box Score

WP: Gunnels (Mepham)

LP: Calia (Kennedy)