Lashes Advances in North Adams Softball League Tourney
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – Logan Stansfield went 3-for-3 with a sacrifice fly on Tuesday to lead Belle Ame Lashes to a 17-15 win and a spot in the finals of the North Adams Women’s Softball League playoffs.
Melissa Girard was 3-for-4 with a double, and Leanne Davis was 3-for-4 at the plate in a win over top-seeded Alternative Living Centers in the final game of the double-elimination tournament’s winners bracket.
ALC will play again Thursday evening at Disanti Field against the winner of Wednesday’s loser’s bracket game between Tower Electric and NAFD/NAPD for a berth in Monday’s championship game.
On Tuesday, Lashes jumped on top with five runs in the top of the first inning and never trailed.
Ashton Smead hit a two-run single, and Jocelyn Duhamel and Girard each doubled in the opening rally.
ALC answered with three runs in the bottom of the first, and the teams combined for 18 runs in the first three innings.
ALC got within a run when it scored four in the bottom of the second to make it 8-7. Dar Fagley, Paulina Perris and Renee Royal got that rally started with consecutive singles.
But pitchers Sarah Sweet of Lashes and Jaycee Blenke of ALC and their defenses quieted the bats through the middle innings.
Each team turned a double play in the fifth.
In the top of the inning, ALC retired Ashlee Bradley on a sacrifice fly and caught a runner attempting to advance to third on the same play.
In the bottom, Lashes second baseman Leanne Davis and shortstop Stansfield turned a 4-6-3 twin killing.
Lashes went to the seventh inning with a 16-12 lead.
It picked up an insurance run when Stansfield reached on a one-out single, moved to third on Breeze Breault’s pinch-hit single to left and scored when Bradley reached on a fielder’s choice.
ALC, which played uphill all night, had one more rally left in it.
With two out and nobody on, the designated home team got five straight hits, including an RBI double from Horton.
But Sweet was able to get a fly ball out to center to leave runners at the corners and preserve the two-run win.
