MEDFIELD – With a 5-10 record, Medfield won three of four while playing a tough schedule to even have a chance at a postseason berth. The Warriors made the best use of that opportunity.
The Warriors put together two big offensive innings and junior Sophie Baker did the rest from the circle as No. 25 Medfield took care of business against No. 40 Latin Academy 8-3 for their third straight season with a victory in the Div. 3 softball preliminary round.
“I think we are truly playing our best softball right now,” said Warriors coach Travis Taliaferro. “I know it sounds cliché after a playoff win, but we kind of got it. We were scuffling until about two weeks left in the regular season, had a couple big wins and it propelled us.”
They will head to No. 8 Gloucester on Sunday at 2 p.m.
Medfield (8-12) got the scoring started in the second as junior Catherine Rodenhi scored from third on a wild pitch after walking with one down. Later in the inning, Baker helped her cause with a two-run single to push the lead to 3-0.
After stranding a runner at second in the third, the Warriors rallied for five runs on five hits in the fourth. Freshman Constance Hillenmeyer made it 4-0 with an RBI single up the middle that was followed by a Baker walk to load the bases. Lindsay Barrett then added an RBI single before a two-run single for junior Tess Baacke. An RBI groundout for Ashley Fessenden finished off the scoring at 8-0.
“We made some adjustments after the fourth and we talked about some things we needed to do differently,” said Taliaferro. “We were falling into a little bit of a rut that sometimes happens. … It was a really timely, just simple adjustment that brought it back to a couple practices ago to some things we were doing in the batter’s box and it worked out really well.”
Baker went the distance while striking out nine and at one point retiring 11 of 12 Latin Academy batters before allowing three runs in the sixth.
“She threw great and she had a couple RBI to start the day,” Taliaferro said. “Just a great, great performance by her. She’s somebody who has come a long way. She’s somebody who really just took the role (of a leader).”
She struck out the side on 15 pitches in the seventh to finish out her outing.
For Latin Academy (11-10), junior Caitlin Sweeney, senior Aislynn Dole and eighth-grader Camryn Collier all drove in runs in the sixth, but Baker got eighth grader Madelyn Andrade to fly out to center to keep it 8-3 with a pair of runners in scoring position.
