Hoosac's Tomkowicz Shuts Out Drury on Senior Night
ADAMS, Mass. -- For the second time in 24 hours, a power outage originated in Adams.
At 3 a.m., it was a fire at a substation.
At 7 p.m., it was the right arm of Caroline Tomkowicz.
Tomkowicz struck out eight and gave up two hits in leading the Hoosac Valley softball team to a 2-0 win over rival Drury on Senior Night at Russell Field.
She lost her bid for a perfect game with two out in the sixth when Emily Moulton sent a single back up the middle, and Amber Iacuessa put a charge into a 3-2 pitch for a two-out triple in the seventh.
But otherwise, Tomkowicz managed to outduel Drury's Cat Record and help the Hurricanes improve to 6-4 this spring.
"She had her rise ball and her curve ball," Hoosac coach Morgan Shafer said. "She was definitely hitting the corners and getting them swinging. Caroline dominated out there, and defensively we played pretty well, too."
"We ran into a buzzsaw," Drury coach Maryann Maroni said. "Tomkowicz was on. She was throwing her fastball. She was throwing a curve ball, and she was hitting her spots."
And Hoosac got a big hit to lead off the game from Erin Girard.
Her shot to left ticked off the glove of a lunging outfielder and rolled far enough to allow the Hoosac second baseman to score.
Two batters later, Kali Puppolo singled to left, and it looked like Hoosac's offense would be firing on all cyllinders.
Instead, Record retired eight of the next nine to come to the plate.
Finally in the fourth, the 'Canes got some insurance for Tomokowicz, who got the rally started with a single up the middle.
Drury appeared to then get a double play on Carrington McGrath's grounder to second, but the umpire ruled that the Blue Devils' second baseman missed the tag on Haley Adelt (running for Tomkowicz) on her way to second.
With a runner on second and two out, Sienna Witherell dropped a single into left field to score Adelt.
Drury (5-9) travels to Frontier on Monday, when Hoosac Valley travels to Lee.