FREEPORT — Even the threat of rain couldn’t dampen the Greely softball team’s offense.
The Rangers scored nine runs in the second inning and played solid defense on their way to a 13-8 win over Freeport on Friday afternoon. Greely improved to 7-2 and remains atop the Class B South Heal point standings, and handed the Falcons (6-1) their first loss.
The victory comes a day after Greely gave up a seven-run lead in a 11-10 loss to Poland.
“Yesterday was a bad mess,” Greely junior Katie Wallace said. “We really thought we would have came in and beat Poland, but we also knew that there might be a similar sentiment coming off Freeport today, that (Freeport) might think that they’re going to come and beat us. So we tried to take whatever Poland’s energy was yesterday and channel it into this game, because we couldn’t come ready with that yesterday.”
Wallace had three hits and pitched a complete game. Junior catcher Sophie Smith had three RBI, senior center fielder Fiona MacArthur stole four bases, and senior left fielder Jenna Carignan had a triple.
How it happened
• Freeport retired the first three batters and jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning on a pair of Greely errors and hits from Izzy George and Ali Brown. In the top of the second, though, the Rangers went through their lineup, scoring nine runs on seven hits and two errors.
“There’s no difference between the top of our order and the bottom of our order,” Wallace said. “So at any point, we can go and have a breakout inning, and I think that’s what makes us look so good this year.”
• Wallace batted in Greely’s 10th run in the top of the third, before Freeport second baseman Olivia Walsh drove in a run and scored in the bottom of the inning. Both Wallace and Piper Larochelle, the Falcons’ relief pitcher, forced multiple ground balls and popups to speed through the next two innings.
• The Rangers added three insurance runs in the sixth and seventh innings, but the Falcons weren’t done yet. George hit a triple and scored on an error, and Brown hit a no-doubt home run to center field.
Statistical leaders
• Freeport: Izzy George (1 1/3 IP, five hits, six earned runs, strikeout, three walks; 2 for 4, two doubles, two RBI, two runs), Ali Brown (2 for 4, HR, two RBI, two runs), Piper Larochelle (5 2/3 IP, eight hits, three earned runs, two strikeouts; 1 for 3, run, walk)
• Greely: Katie Wallace (7 IP, seven hits, seven earned runs, five strikeouts, five walks; 3 for 5, two RBI, two runs), Fiona MacArthur (2 for 5, RBI, two runs, four stolen bases), Sophie Smith (2 for 4, three RBI, run)
Notable quotes
• “They won’t give up on anything. I mean, the problem that we had today, there’s too many errors. We gave them way too many outs, threw the ball around a little bit, which isn’t normal for us. I mean, we tend not to do that. Today, I think we just brought it on ourselves, unfortunately.” — Freeport coach Chris St. Pierre
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