Great pitching leads Scarborough past Bonny Eagle 8-0
Softball: Scarborough has strong season opener with 8-0 win over Bonny Eagle Senior pitcher Alyssa Williamson strikes out 13 and allows just one hit for the defending Class A champs.
By Steve Craig scraig@pressherald.com
Staff Writer
SCARBOROUGH — She won last year’s state championship game and has a Division I scholarship secured. That doesn’t mean Scarborough High senior pitcher Alyssa Williamson didn’t have some jitters early in Wednesday’s season opener against Bonny Eagle.
click image to enlargeBonny Eagle’s Breanna Lifland waits for the ball as Scarborough’s Brittany Plowman slides safely into second base for a stolen base during Wednesday’s softball game.
Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer
click image to enlargeScarborough pitcher Alyssa Williamson fires the ball to the plate while pitching against Bonny Eagle on Wednesday.
Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer
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Maine Today Photo Store“The second I stepped on the mound and threw the first pitch I could feel the nerves,” Williamson said. “I was talking with my catcher (Megan Murrell) and she’s like ‘we’ve got this.’ She helped me settle down a little bit.”
Williamson quickly settled into a groove, throwing a one-hit, 8-0 Western A shutout against Bonny Eagle. The Drexel-bound left-hander struck out 13 batters, walked two and retired the final 10 batters she faced.
Scarborough broke a scoreless tie with three runs in the fourth inning and added five more on five hits in the fifth.
“I don’t know if I’d say mid-season form,” Scarborough Coach Tom Griffin said. “But I think we benefited from getting eight preseason games so we’re more fortunate than most. We had some excellent practices so I think we were well prepared.”
Brittany Plowman, Williamson, Brenna Kent, and Sophia Burnham each had two hits for Scarborough.
The Red Storm had scratched out five singles off Bonny Eagle senior starting pitcher Allie Pike and led 1-0 when Ashley Gleason roped a one-out liner to right that skipped by the fielder and went to the fence for an RBI triple.
“I knew it was just a matter of time,” Gleason said. “We were making contact but we just kept hitting it right to their people. We knew if we just kept it up we would eventually find the holes.”
No. 9 batter Maggie Murphy (2 RBI) followed with a well-executed safety squeeze to score Gleason for a 3-0 lead.
Williamson then struck out the side in dominating fashion in the top of the fifth.
The Red Storm bats really went to work in the fifth. Plowman and Williamson had back-to-back doubles to add one run. Murrell followed with a hard single to center that was misplayed, allowing her to reach third. Before the inning was over, Kent (single), Gleason (sacrifice fly) and Murphy (single) each had an RBI.
Bonny Eagle, a playoff team in 2013, returns one of the SMAA’s top pitchers in Pike. She struck out five and walked one but did allow 11 hits. The Scots had six preseason scrimmages but have yet to practice on their varsity field.
“I thought we came out pretty strong considering our circumstances,” Pike said. “I know my velocity wasn’t as fast as it could have been, but spot-wise I thought I was doing pretty well. They’re going to hit the ball. They’re Scarborough.”
Pike was the only hitter to get a hit off Williamson, grounding a leadoff single in the fourth. Scarborough right-fielder Brittany Plowman took another hit away when she charged a sharply hit ball by Lauren Turner in the second, taking it on one hop and throwing out Turner at first by half a step.
All 13 of Williamson’s strikeouts were swinging.
“It tells me that my ball is moving a lot,” Williamson said. “I’ve always been taught (to have) spin over speed. If they’re missing that means I’m spinning the ball really well.”
“I was happy that they weren’t watching things,” Bonny Eagle Coach Sue Rondeau said. “(Williamson) was up to a hundred-something pitches so we battled and saw six or seven pitches an at-bat.”
Scarborough hosts its chief rival South Portland on Friday in an 11 a.m. game. Those teams have combined to win the past five Western A titles and four of the past five state championships.
Steve Craig can be reached at 791-6413 or at:
| BOX SCORE |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
R |
H |
E |
| Bonny Eagle Varsity |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
| Varsity Red Storm |
0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
8 |
12 |
0 |
Date: April 23, 2014
Time: 11:00am
Venue: Varsity Field
