Bats lead Clarke win streak

After six straight losses to open the Conference II-League I season, Clarke (5-6 overall) has rebounded like a Super Ball over the last week, winning three straight games, including a 3-2 decision over second-place Island Trees last Saturday and a 4-2 victory over first-place, and previously unbeaten, Plainedge just one day earlier.

“It was a rough first half [of the season] but I think we’ve turned the corner,” Lady Rams coach Chrissy DeMott said. “Our offense has improved. We were averaging four and five hits a game, and now it’s been 15 or 16. We have a very strong lineup.”

Senior catcher Maria Ruiz was 2-for-3 and scored a run, and seventh-grade pitcher Sarah Cornell helped herself with a run batted in as well. One of three starting pitchers for Clarke, Cornell dominated the Lady Bulldogs, pitching a complete game with 10 strikeouts and allowing just four hits. “She throws hard and has a lot of natural movement,” DeMott said. “If she throws it over the plate, she’s virtually unhittable.”

The Lady Rams turned some heads with the win over the Lady Red Devils, a major reversal from the first meeting between the teams, which Clarke lost, 9-0. Freshman Nicole Randazzo pitched a complete game, and scattered seven hits with three walks but got plenty of help from the defense behind her in erasing the base runners, until Plainedge made it interesting by scoring a pair of unearned runs in the bottom of the seventh.

Senior shortstop Alyssa Colletti was a perfect 3-for-3 at the plate with an RBI and two runs scored, and junior first baseman Danielle Ferrara broke a scoreless tie with a two-run home run in the fourth inning. Junior second baseman Aly Smith and Colletti each drove in runs in the sixth to help the Lady Rams open up a four-run bulge. “The girls really wanted to win it,” DeMott noted.