Salzillo let down by Tiger offense
Tolman goes 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position
CUMBERLAND — Tolman softball coach Craig Giarrusso appeared to solve one of his team’s issues, but there’s another one that Giarusso still doesn’t have an answer for.
Giarrusso wasn’t pleased with his team’s defense in losses to East Providence and La Salle, so he moved freshman Hannah Coken to third base and put senior Megan Salzillo in the circle Saturday morning against undefeated Cumberland.
Those changes worked, as the Tigers committed just one error, while Salzillo only allowed one hit over the final four innings to a Cumberland team that’s been one of the elite offensive teams in the state over the last two seasons.
The problem, however, is the Tigers continue to struggle with runners in scoring position. Cumberland junior AllStater Jocelyn Bodington was uncharacteristically wild and walked six Tigers, but Tolman was 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position and dropped a 3-0 Division I decision.
“When you don’t score a run, you’re not going to win anything,” Giarrusso said. “We haven’t hit since Day 1. We left at least seven or eight girls in scoring position and you’re not going to win if you don’t get that key hit with runners on base. The only one who is really hitting for us is Ally Larson.”
Tolman (0-4 Division I) would likely be 4-0 if Larson was allowed to hit in all nine positions. The Tigers only mustered three hits against the Bryant-bound lefty and two were off the bat of the senior lead-off hitter. Larson was stranded at third base twice and she reached second base in the seventh.
The only other Tolman hit was by Coken to lead off the sixth inning. The freshman, just like the rest of her teammates, wound up stranded on base.
“Ally started the season the way she ended the last one; she’s hitting the ball hard,” Giarrusso said. “She’s really the only offensive production and I have her hitting at the top of the lineup. I’d like to hit her nine times in the lineup if I could.”
Cumberland (4-0 Division I) had far fewer opportunities to score than the Tigers, but the reigning I-North champions took advantage of their chances. All-State centerfielder Sam Jalbert reached base in each of the first two innings and the fleet-footed senior scored both times.
Senior first baseman Sydney Provencal plated Jalbert with a single in the first and then No. 2 batter Renae Lacroix scored Katie Calabro and Jalbert with a single to center in the second to finish the scoring.
The Tigers had a chance to score their first run in two games in the opening inning when Bodington walked Larson, Brittney Baptista and Coken to load the bases with one out. Cumberland coach Marty Crowley went out and visited his ace and Bodington struck out Jessica Potter and Salzillo to keep the game scoreless.
“I just told her to put the past behind her and throw strikes,” Crowley said. “Sometimes, it’s just about moving past it and to let the infield know what we’re doing. She focused a little more when they had runners in scoring position. That’s a testament to her as a pitcher.”
Provencal knocked in the only run Bodington would need in the opening inning and then Lacroix knocked in a pair of runs in the second to stretch the lead out to three. After that, however, Salzillo was superb.
The senior allowed just two base runners – a Lacroix walk in the fourth and an Emily Anderson single in the sixth – over the final four innings. The Tigers also committed just one error.
“Considering where we’ve been and how we’ve been playing, defensively we were really good,” Giarrusso said. “We’re still making some mental errors, but we decided to change things up. We switched the pitcher, I put a freshman at third and we’re just trying to find something that will work. This might’ve been it defensively.”
Outside of the second inning, the Tigers had runners on base in every inning. The road side even brought the game-tying run to the plate in the seventh after Amanda Maillet reached on an error and Larson produced a single. But, as was the case all afternoon, Bodington worked out of the jam to preserve her second shutout of the young season.
“Offensively, I don’t have an answer because I don’t know what’s going on in the batter’s box because we don’t look comfortable,” Giarrusso said. “We don’t look ready to hit. That’s the problem four games into the season. It’s not that we gradated offense from last year because the core is still here. I know what they’re capable of because I see it in practice, it’s just not carrying over into the games.”
Life doesn’t get any easier for the Tigers this week because they have to face Lincoln’s Bella DiOrio Tuesday afternoon and Moses Brown’s Janel Gamache on Thursday.