St. Mary’s the clear winner in Holland

LYNN — There’s nothing tangible one can say about a lopsided victory – even if it’s the championship of the city’s official softball tournament.

That’s the question that greeted St. Mary’s coach Colleen Newbury after Sunday’s 20-1 victory over Lynn Classical in the John Holland Memorial Softball Tournament at Grace Rogato Field in the Breed Middle School complex.

“There’s always something you can take out of it,” Newbury said. “I think it’s a character-building game. You see how different people respond to different situations. Things like that.”

In her case, Newbury emptied the bench, and was able to give pitcher Aliza Crean-Oviedo a break, taking her out after the third inning. One of those relief pitchers was her daughter Catherine. Also, the Spartans eased up on the aggressive baserunning once the game got out of hand.

Still, there were stars aplenty for the Spartans. Tournament MVP Brooke Moloney was 3-for-4 with 3 RBI and 4 runs scored. Fellow all-tournament teammates Michaela Walker and Lory Soriel were 5-for-5 and 3 RBI; and 4-for-4 with 4 RBI respectively. Olivia DiSessa scored three runs and knocked in three.

“Now,” she said, “comes the real deal.”

Over the course of the season, St. Mar’y’s has been ranked as high as No. 1 in Division 3, and as of Friday, the Spartans, 14-4, sit and No. 5.

“I feel like we’re in pretty good shape,” she said. “Our lineup is good, our pitchers are throwing well, and our defensive execution has been good. You know how important defense is.”

The weekend wasn’t a total loss for Classical. Its 7-1 win over English Saturday night in the preliminary earned the Rams a tournament spot, which made coach Joe Morin very happy.

“We had a tough year,” Morin said. “We only had 14 girls in our program. We graduated a lot of girls the last two years, and didn’t get many to come out. I had to start four girls who’d never played softball before. To see them develop the way they have is extremely gratifying.”

As for the game, Morin said that while it wouldn’t seem that he could take anything away from such a lopsided loss, he did say that “I suppose the game prepared us for what we might be facing in the tournament. That’s an all-star team over there. I haven’t seen anyone hit the ball as hard as they did today.”

The Rams, English and Swampscott placed two players each on the all-tournament team. Classical got Rachel Dana and Nevaeh Eth; the Bulldogs had their battery – pitcher Arinna Laboy and catcher Leanyah Pineiro; and Swampscott had Melanie Blood and Olivia Bartlett.

Winners of the scholarships were LaBoy from English, Lauren Wilson from Classical, Blood from Swampscott and Gabby Marichal from St. Mary’s.

Holland was a founder of the Lynn Babe Ruth softball program, and Newbury, who is from Lynn originally, played during the same era with his daughter Alyssa. A former officer in Pine Hill Little League, Holland was also president of Lynn Babe Ruth baseball from 1993-1995. He died of cancer in 1996.

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