D-II Softball: Longer Road To Title For Lady Panthers

East Greenwich scored a walk-off RBI in the bottom of the seventh inning to defeat the visiting Lady Panthers on June 3, moving one step closer to the finals at Rhode Island College.

Johnston now moves on to the consolation round with a scheduled June 4 contest at home against Narragansett, now needing four wins to reach the final round.

"We felt we were very competitive with (East Greenwich), and I think they can go a long way," said Iannuccilli, who is in his final year coaching the Lady Panthers, "but it's not over for us yet — we've still got another game to go."

Lady Avengers' senior captain Danielle Webber took the plate with bases loaded in the seventh and drilled a grounder down the third base line to score junior Karen Lockhart for the victory.

"They never stopped coming back," EG coach Robert Petrucci said of his squad. 'We were down the entire game — 1-0, 3-1, 4-3, they never stopped coming back."

The tough-fought win ended a contest that Johnston led, 3-1, as late as the sixth inning.

Bianca Robbins brought home Danielle Gawlik in the top of the first, and Johnston added two more in the top of the sixth when EG's Kayla Santos overthrew first base on a JHS senior Megan Macera grounder. Santos's error allowed Johnston senior Bianca Rossi and sophomore Amanda Columbo to cross the plate and open the Lady Panthers' lead to 3-1.

East Greenwich brought the game even in the home half of the sixth with sophomore Kerri Pallister's long ball that scored Lockhart and freshman Rachel Gammons.

Columbo scored again for Johnston in the top of the seventh on Ariana Cafesso's pop-fly to third base, but the Lady Panthers left two runners on base.

"That was the key to the game," Johnston coach Dave Iannuccilli said of the runners stranded after the third out in the vistor's half of the last inning.

Lady Avenger sophomore Lauren Duvall smashed a no-out home run over the left-field fence off Johnston senior Alaina DeNoncour in the bottom of the seventh to bring EG back to 4-4.

"I just kind of relaxed" as the ball approached, Duvall explained of her drive. "(DeNoncour) is definitely one of the better pitchers in the league, and I give her a lot of credit for that, and she definitely battled all the way to the seventh inning."

Two hits and a pitch-out loaded the bases for Webber, who provided the hit that won the game.

Junior Mollie Anderson, EG's starting pitcher, credited Johnston with a strong effort.

"We already knew they were a great team, and just based on their hitting, they're a very well put-together team," said Anderson. "It's hard to figure out which location was tough for them to hit."

East Greenwich is scheduled to face Classical High School on June 6 in the next round of the playoffs.