BINGHAMTON – Knocking on the door of a sectional softball championship the past four years, Greene broke through Saturday afternoon against Thomas A. Edison.
Stringing together one sharply-struck hit after another, the Trojans built a 6-0 lead over the final two innings, and survived a shaky bottom-of-the-seventh to beat Thomas A. Edison, 6-2, in the Section IV Class C title game at the BAGSAI Complex.
It was the third championship game in four seasons for Greene (19-4), who have won nine straight games since a 1-0 shutout loss to Oxford on May 4. “I haven’t said anything to the team about how many games we’ve won in a row,” said Greene coach Rick Smith. “It’s the seniors who have taken big steps the last few weeks as far as keeping the team calm, and the younger ones have stepped up. They haven’t tried to do too much, and just do their jobs.”
The Trojans did their job well on the defensive end most of the way, and the hitting finally came to life in the sixth. To that point, Greene had four hits in five innings, and only once – the fourth frame – did it have as many as two baserunners against Edison hurler Elizabeth Warren. “We were a little nervous in the early part of the game, and I think that was part of the reason (we weren’t) hitting,” said Greene junior second baseman Morgan Willis. “We finally relaxed and started our bats.”
Natalie Greene, who had yet to make solid contact against Warren, laced a double to right-center to start the sixth inning. Rebecca Hanrahan was intentionally walked, and Taylor Ellis reached on a fielder’s choice as Hanrahan was forced at second. Ellis stole second base without a throw setting the stage for the biggest hit of the game. Morgan Ellis collected her second of three hits with a single to right field scoring two runs.
The hitting became more crisp for Greene in the seventh when number nine hitter, lefty Sierra Stoppkotte, lined a lead-off single to left field. Caitlin Willis walked, Natalie Greene reached on an error – Edison’s lone miscue of the game – and Hanrahan hit an RBI groundout lifting the lead to three runs. Taylor Ellis added a two-run double, and Morgan Ellis’s RBI double gave Greene a six-run advantage. “We were pecking away and had a couple of runners on, but couldn’t put two or three hits together,” Smith said. “It’s amazing how (the hitting) trickles down. A little crack opens, and everyone gets confidence and starts to hit it hard.”
The bottom of the seventh was not without its nerve-wracking moments. Edison, unable to successfully time Greene’s Hanrahan all game, went to the small ball bunting four times in its last at-bat.
Chelsea Storch led off with a bunt single, Kiersten Deu doubled to right field putting runners on second and third, and Warren’s groundball to third resulted in an error scoring the first run. Hanrahan struck out Megan Malanoski for the first out, but the tenuous moments were not over. Nicole Bargesser bunted and reached on Greene’s second error of the inning plating run number two, and everyone was safe on Michelle Waychak’s infield grounder as Hanrahan fielded the bunt, but had no one to throw to at first base as the infield was pressed forward.
With the bases now loaded, Taylor Ellis fielded a groundball at third, and tossed a backhand flip to catcher Gabby Sherwood for the second out. Lead-off hitter Katelyn Warren then grounded out to Natalie Greene at first base to end the game.
“I definitely got nervous in the seventh inning when they scored two runs and the bases were loaded,” Smith said. “If they hit a gapper, the complexion of the game changes, and I was flashing back to the Seton game two years ago. I was still hoping, and we came up with the outs.”
Aside from Morgan Ellis’s three hits and three RBI, Greene, Taylor Ellis, Hanrahan, and Willis all had two hits. Willis was also instrumental in Greene’s fine defensive play through the first six innings. She leapt high at shortstop to snare a line drive from Katelyn Warren robbing the Edison player of the basehit. One inning earlier, Hanrahan showed her own fielding prowess flagging Waychak’s hard liner up the middle. Hanrahan tossed back to Greene at first base for an inning-ending double play.
