Spartans Softball Falls to Undefeated Bruins

Lake Braddock softball remained undefeated in the Patriot District with a 14-1 shellacking over West Springfield Friday. Through three innings, freshman Ashley Flesch retired nine straight before being pulled for junior Anna Delaney. By then, the damage had already been done.

"I felt that all of my pitches were working tonight," Flesch said. "I was mostly throwing fastballs and trying to mix it up on each side of the plate."

Although Lake Braddock coach George Rumore prefers to rotate his pitchers each game, Flesch has played the most innings thus far, and she was rather humble when talking about her performance.

"I have a great defense behind me," Flesch added.

Offensively, the Lake Braddock lineup seemed to be locked in on the pitches of junior Marissa Johnson. Though Johnson had given up 11 hits and 10 runs through three innings, Spartan coach Rob Benton was pleased with her performance. Johnson was pulled after the third inning, but Benton insists that it had nothing to do with her performance.

"She just started pitching last summer," said Benton. "She's pitched every inning of every game for us this year and she's doing a great job for us. She's just not overpowering to the point where we get a lot of strike outs as Lake Braddock did."

Additionally, injuries have caused the Spartans to experiment with different players on defense. Junior first baseman Brittany Morgan returned to the lineup for the first time this season and it was clear that she was rusty. Multiple infield errors placed runners on base and Benton attributes this to a lack of consistency in the lineup.

"I don't think we've had the same starting lineup for any of the eight games," added Benton. "I'd love to get us to where we know which nine players are going to be there every single time."

West Springfield's first hit came in the fourth inning after a two-hop bunt that Delaney failed to get to in time. The next batter, Helena Burr, then sent a line drive to the right field gap that earned her a triple and an RBI.

"We're a better team than what we showed today," Benton commented. "Lake Braddock hit the ball well, but we had a little control over that. We made a couple mistakes and it just snowballed on us."

Lake Braddock second baseman Andrea Selecman hit 3-for-3 with 3 RBI. Mallory Gerndt was 3-for-5 with a walk and 2 RBI. Flesch was 3-for-4 with 2 RBI.