Green's Game-Winning Double Lifts Lenox in Seventh

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. -- After shivering on the bench for most of the game as the designated player -- softball’s equivalent of the designated hitter -- Lenox’s Aimee Green came through in the clutch on Friday afternoon.

 

Green ripped a two-out, two-run double to right field to complete a two-run comeback in the top of the seventh and send the Millionaires on to a 4-3 win over Drury at Francis Millard Field.

 

“That’s a huge at-bat,” Lenox coach Chris O’Brien said. “That’s why Aimee’s in that role. She’s in the four hole as the DP.

 

“Aimee is a good all-around hitter. She’s patient at the plate. She waited. She listened. And it paid off for us.”

 

Lenox had four of its six hits in the seventh inning as the Millionaires (2-1) all started listening to the coaching staff and finally had some success against Drury’s Katie Booth.

 

“All I said was: You just need to be patient on the ball, just sit and be patient on the ball,“ O’Brien said. “Wait for your pitch and drive it. Make contact with the ball and make them make the play. That’s what they did.”

 

Lexi started the game-winning rally with a single to right, and she moved up on a wild pitch. But Booth (nine strikeouts, six walks) got the next hitter looking at a called third strike, and Drury’s McKenna Pevey speared a line drive at third for out No. 2.

 

Claire Lynch dropped a single into left to put runners at the corners, and Kasey Valley’s single scored Fletcher and put the go-ahead runner on base for Green.

 

Green, who was 0-for-3 going into the seventh, delivered a base hit to the right side that deflected off an infielder’s glove and got away from the outfielder, allowing Vallee to try to score. She beat the throw home to make it 4-3.

 

And Anna Lynch sealed the win with a 1-2-3 seventh inning.

 

Lynch struck out six and allowed five hits -- just one hit after the third inning, when Drury took a 3-1 lead.

 

The Blue Devils (1-3) scored their first two runs in the second thanks to back-to-back doubles by Pevey and Booth and a fielder’s choice RBI by Jacqueline Moulton.

 

Maddie Barenski drew a walk and eventually came around to score on an error for Lenox in the top of the third.

 

Drury answered in the bottom of the frame thanks to Abby Lear’s leadoff single, an error and an RBI single up the middle from MacKenzie McGuire.

 

McGuire was the hero in Drury’s last outing, a comeback win over rival Hoosac Valley.

 

But instead of capitalizing on the momentum from that win last Saturday, the Blue Devils had a lot of time to cool off -- literally.

 

“We had to sit and not get a practice outside,” Drury coach Morgan Shaffer said of the weather conditions that messed up most team’s April vacation week plans. “It was very hard to maintain momentum. We didn’t even get to have a practice outside all week before today.

 

“We had to wait until noon for the snow to melt off the field today. I’m surprised we played at all. … It was tough. But we live and we learn, and we’ll come back.”

 

Drury looks to get back in the win column on Monday when it hosts Monument Mountain.

 

Lenox is at home Tuesday against Lee.