Fireside Walks Off With Slo-Pitch Victory Over My Place In Women’s Title Game

By Andy Hutchison

Down to its final out, and trailing by a run, the Fireside-sponsored team clawed back for a hard-fought walk-off victory over My Place in Newtown’s Women’s Slo-Pitch Softball championship at Treadwell Park on August 12. Nina Ricciardi drove in Lindsey Carley with the decisive run in a 5-4 win.

Top-seeded Fireside, which fell behind 4-1 to No. 3 My Place, trailed just 4-3 heading into its last at bat, in the bottom of the seventh inning. With one out, Stacey Gordon blooped a single to short right field, and Carley followed with a hit of her own. With two on and two out, Shelby Rotunda drilled an RBI single to center to keep her team alive and, in doing so, knotted the score at 4-4. Ricciardi followed with the game-winner, a single to right-center.

“Not exactly the position you want to be in but we fought back,” said Ricciardi, adding that My Place put up a great battle. “They played an awesome game.”

The outcome could have gone either way, and players on both sides pointed out that it was clean, error-free effort by both sides.

“We don’t have anything to be ashamed about. They played really well. When they had to be clutch — they were clutch,” said My Place player Ruth Rowe.

My Place took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third when Katie Mahoney came up with an RBI single to score Diane Lawrence. In the bottom of the inning, third baseman Genevieve Echavarria made a nice over-the-head catch with her back to home plate, to help My Place maintain its edge.

The slight underdogs took a 2-0 lead in the fourth when Jen Good worked one of her two walks and later scored on a hit by Lynn Baylis. Fireside sliced the deficit in half, and back to a run, when Carley drove in Gordon. The score remained 2-1 until My Place scored twice in the sixth. Lisa Masella plated Kelly Teraszkiewicz with a hit to make it 3-1, and Good reached on an infield single, which scored another run for a 4-1 cushion.

In the bottom of the sixth, the comeback kids got back to within a run. Kathryn Piccini singled home Lynn McClintick to make it 4-2, and Sara Frampton followed with a run-producing groundout to pull Fireside to within a run at 4-3.

My Place advanced to the title game with a 21-2 win over No. 3 Cork and Barrel on August 10. Teraszkiewicz hit two homeruns, one of which was a grand slam, and Masella also hit a homer. Baylis pitched a great game and had a strikeout.

My Place beat Black Swan in the quarterfinals. Fireside defeated Salon Michele in the quarters, and had a semifinal round bye in the six-team league playoffs.