Late Runs Seal Shutout Win for Tigers Softball

The Oliver Ames varsity softball team utilized strong pitching and timely hitting to pick up a shutout win over Sharon at home Wednesday.

The girls beat the Eagles 5-0 behind a strong performance on the mound by Mattea Sarnecki to improve to 5-4 overall. Sarnecki picked up her first shutout of the season.

“I think she did a great job keeping our bats at bay which is not something I expected to have happen because I think we’re a decent hitting team," Sharon head coach Debbie Parker said.

Sarnecki allowed six hits in the complete game effort.

“She really got her job done today," said OA head coach Lindsay Allison. "We’ve been really working on using her legs and really hitting her spots.”

The Tigers grabbed a run in the first inning and the score remained 1-0 until the bottom of the sixth when OA picked up four insurance runs to seal the win late.

“In the [sixth inning] I saw an opportunity to do the same thing we did in the first inning which was to bunt our lead off, have her steal and then bunt the second batter to get her over at third,” Allison said.

With OA's Erin Lynch on third Lexi Soucie bunted a single down the third base line while Lynch raced home to score the run on the suicide squeeze.

Sharon pitcher Kelsey Whiting gave up three more runs in the inning.

“It kind of got the ball rolling for everybody and they just kept hitting and kept hitting,” Allison said.

“It didn’t go the way that we wanted it to that’s for sure. I mean we were a little bit sloppy and we definitely didn’t do what we needed to do offensively,” Parker said. “We had six hits the whole game. They had six hits in one inning so that’s the difference.”