East Haven Rallies to Defeat North Haven in 11 Innings

The North Haven girls softball team dropped a heart breaker to East Haven by the score of 5-3 in 11 innings on Thursday. The Indians outhit the Yellow Jackets 15-8, but left eleven runners on base, and were caught trying to steal four times. North Haven played flawless defense for 10 innings, but a pair of errors on the same play in the 11th led to two East Haven runs, which proved to be the difference.

The Yellow Jackets scored first in the initial frame when Veronica Hribko was hit by a pitch, and then Brianna Spadacenta doubled into right center to put runners on second and third. Miranda Baldassare grounded out to second to drive in Hribko, but then Amy DePalma grounded out to short to end the inning.

North Haven tied the score in their half of the first when Amanda Rizzo led off with line drive triple to the center field fence. One out later, Kristyn Cullen drove a sacrifice fly to center field to tie the game at 1-1. The Indians took the lead in the second by parlaying three East Haven errors into a pair of runs, culminated by a steal of home by Lisa Gaudio to take a 3-1 lead.

East Haven tied the score in the sixth when Hribko led off with a double to the left center field fence. Baldassare followed with an RBI double to the right center field fence, and then Amanda Jessey grounded a single up the middle for a game tying RBI.

From there, North Haven had three opportunities to walk off with a win by getting the winning run to third with less than two outs in each of the 7th, 8th and 10th innings, but could not come up with the big hit. In the 7th, Gaudio led off with a single up the middle and was sacrificed to second by Tatum Seaver. After a wild pitch moved Gaudio to third, a pair of ground outs ended the inning.

In the 8th, Monica Pustari led off with a single to center, and after an out, she moved over to third on Brianne Melillo's double to the left field fence. A hard one hop grounder to third by Jessica Seaver trapped Pustari off the base, however, and she was tagged out. Another ground out followed and the inning was over.

In the 10th, Cullen lined a one out double to the center field fence and was ran for by Brittany Murray. Melillo then grounded an infield single up the middle which was snared by East Haven's Carlee Brigante to hold Murray at third. After a steal of second by Melillo, Jessica Seaver grounded out to Brigante, who was playing in at second, for the second out. Nicole Dunlap then lined what looked to be the game winning hit to right, but Brigante was able to jump just high enough to snare it and send the game into one more extra inning.

East Haven broke through in the 11th after DePalma led off and was hit by a pitch. Jessey then put down a bunt which was fielded by Indians' pitcher Arianna Pustari, who chose to try to get the lead runner at second and threw wild for an error. A second error on the throw back in allowed both runners to advance another base. She threw wild for an error, allowing both runners to advance another base. After a popout to second, Marissa Pacelli dropped a single between three Indains in short right to drive in both runners to put East Haven up 5-3.

North Haven mounted a two out rally in the bottom of the 11th when Amanda Genovese slapped a bunt single up third, and then Amanda Rizzo ripped a double inside third and down the left field line. Genovese, who was half way home from third, was required to go back because the ball rolled out of play. Monica Pustari then popped out to second to end the game.

The Indian offense was led by Senior Amanda Rizzo (3-6 with a double, triple and run scored), Freshman Brianna Melillo (4-5 with a double), and Senior Amanda Genovese (4-5 with a stolen base). Freshman Arianna Pustari was the hard luck losing pitcher throwing all 11 innings with 11 strikeouts for North Haven.

East Haven's offensive leaders were Miranda Baldassare (2-5 with a double and 2 RBI) and Marissa Pacelli (3-5 with 2 RBI). Sophomore Marissa Esposito pitched all 11 innings for the Yellow Jackets to earn the win.