Barmash, Woburn snap Reading’s 11-game run
WOBURN >> The stakes were as high as they come as far as regular season, Middlesex League rivalry games go — especially in the rematch of Woburn’s blowout loss to Reading from earlier in the season. But with the Rockets pushing the tying runner to third base with two outs in the top of the seventh inning on Thursday afternoon and one of the best hitters in the state standing at the plate, Tanners pitcher Morgan Barmash came through for what felt like the umpteenth time.
After escaping jam after jam, Barmash forced a Jackie Malley fly out with Sally Cashin standing 60 feet away to elude one more and help Woburn (11-2) secure a 3-2 win over Reading (11-2). That came just a
half-inning after the Tanners took advantage of an error to plate two and turn a one-run deficit into the
lead, rounding out a complete team comeback to even the season series and snap the Rockets’ 11-game
win streak.
Barmash pitched a complete game, holding Reading to two unearned runs on three hits and two walks with nine strikeouts. The Rockets were 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position.
“That’s a helluva softball team,” said Woburn head coach Courtney Sigsbury. “(Barmash) was absolutely phenomenal. … I’m just proud of them. What an effort against a fabulous pitcher, a fabulous hitting team.”
The two teams gritted out whatever they could muster offensively most of the day, as Barmash and Reading pitcher Analise Grady (six innings, three runs, two earned runs, three hits, two walks, 12 strikeouts) dazzled from the circle.
The Rockets got the first advantage when Malley kept running the bases on a double, scoring on an unorthodox, two fielder’s obstructions for a 1-0 lead in third inning. It didn’t take long for Jenna Taylor to respond for Woburn with a leadoff triple in the fourth inning, scoring on a wild pitch three batters later.
Reading looked like it got the final edge in the top of the sixth inning when a runner scored on a throwing error with two outs for a 2-1 lead. But Madi Soderquist singled and Taylor reached on an error to help put runners in scoring position in the bottom half of the inning, before Barmash rifled a ball up the middle. A diving play stopped the ball, but an errant throw scored the two for the 3-2 lead and eventual win.
“We know that we have to do things like that to win games,” Sigsbury said. “We’re going to have to manufacture runs against good teams, and they did. I’m so proud.”