Carolyn Thornton

Division II softball: Moses Brown slugs its way to state championship
07:24 PM EDT on Sunday, June 7, 2009
PROVIDENCE –– Now that’s the softball team Moses Brown coach Yolanda Wilcox Gonzalez knows and loves.
Unleashing a 12-hit attack and playing errorless defense, Moses Brown jumped out to an early lead and never looked back, defeating Barrington, 9-3, to capture its second straight Division II title at the Amica Insurance Rhode Island Interscholastic League Softball Championships, Sunday at Rhode Island College.
“That’s definitely the team I’m used to seeing,” Wilcox Gonzalez said of the Quakers. “They did a phenomenal job, just hitting the ball. Clean hits. And they really worked together, which is what they’ve been doing all year. It’s just a great win for them, and it’s just fabulous for the four seniors.”
Sunday marked the third time Moses Brown and Barrington had met in this week’s playoffs.
The Quakers prevailed, 5-0, in the first encounter last Sunday, which they followed with a 2-1 win over II-South champion Middletown the next night to earn a spot in the title game.
While the II-North champs spent the week resting up, Barrington began trudging through the losers’ bracket of the double-elimination tournament. On the brink of elimination, the Eagles posted victories over West Warwick (2-1), Prout (6-0) and Middletown, earning their second trip to the finals in three years with a 3-0 win over the Islanders.
Barrington kept on rolling Saturday when it took the field once again against Moses Brown, edging the Quakers, 3-2, and forcing a deciding game.
But the Eagles encountered a very different Moses Brown squad yesterday. Putting on an impressive hitting display, the Quakers took command early, scoring three runs in each of the first two innings and three more in the sixth.
Senior captain and catcher Katie Sullivan led the way at the plate, driving in three runs on two triples and scoring twice. Sophomore shortstop Jillian Gately was 3-for-4 with two triples, two RBI and a run scored, while younger sister Katie Gately was 3-for-4 with a double and two RBI.
“They were ready,” Wilcox Gonzalez said. “They talked after the game (Saturday). They talked to each other (Saturday) night. I got a bunch of text messages from them saying that they were mentally preparing and that they were ready to play their game. . . . I think from the beginning their goal was, `Let’s get the runs early,’ and the first two innings were great for us. Barrington played a good game. We just hit the ball. Everybody hit, and that’s what I’m accustomed to seeing.”
Barrington, which appeared somewhat weary after playing seven games in nine days, finally got on the board in the fourth when Amy Cohn’s double to right center drove home Julie Lally and Jenna Martin. Cohn also came through with an RBI single in the sixth that scored Lally. But that’s all the Eagles could muster, stranding a total of nine runners.
Hampered by a pulled groin muscle suffered a few weeks ago, Quakers pitcher Liz Kacz wasn’t as dominant as she is known to be. Taking some speed off her pitches and concentrating more on her location to compensate for the twinge of pain she felt each time she landed her left leg, the junior righthander gave up 10 hits and fanned only 5 batters instead of her usual double-digit strikeout count. Even with the adjustments, she still proved quite effective on the mound, while also contributing two hits and reaching base another time when she was hit by a pitch.
“(Saturday’s) game I was really down about how I played,” Kacz said. “It wasn’t like my greatest performance at all, and then after the game, we had a team talk and we all lifted each other up, and they were just like, `Liz, we have your back. We’re going to be there for you.’ Especially my catcher Katie, she was cheering me on the whole time. And warming up (Sunday) I was really nervous, but I just wanted to throw it over the plate and let my teammates do the work because I knew they were going to be behind me this game.”
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