Salzillo leads Tolman to shutout of Toll Gate
Tigers continue to work way to middle of Division I standings
PAWTUCKET – Megan Salzillo admitted her Wednesday afternoon pre-game session left her baffled at her pitching inaccuracy. Her screwball, for one, wasn’t tailing toward the right-handed batter like it usually does.
Once she walked into the circle for the start of Tolman High’s Division I clash with Toll Gate, how- ever, she noticed a remarkable difference.
The senior righty whirled what could be her finest outing of the campaign. In a full seven-inning stint, she yielded just three hits (two in the final frame) and struck a batter while whiffing nine as the Tigers woman-handled the Titans, 8-0, before a crowd of about 45 at Slater Park’s Bailey Field.
She also helped herself with the bat, going 2-for-4 with a double, RBI and two runs scored.
With that outing, Tolman claimed its fifth straight triumph overall and fourth in league action to move to 4-7 in D-I.
“My warm-ups weren’t perfect, that’s for sure,” Salzillo stated after the sterling performance. “Some of my pitches weren’t working, and I was concerned. When I got out there, everything was working. My go-to pitch was the curveball, but if I had an 0-2 count, I’d move to the riseball.
“I didn’t know I had so many strikeouts,” she added with a giggle.
As for her offensive ability on this day, she said only, “I was just trying to hit the ball and bring in whoever was on base. My teammates did a great job with hitting (11 in all). I guess you could say hitting is contagious. My team had my back the whole way.”
Freshman Hannah Coken led the charge for the Tigers, closing at 1-for-2 with three RBI, while sophomore Amanda Maillet went 1-for-2 with a double, walk and two RBI; junior Sophie Marchese 2-for-3 with a two-bagger, free pass, RBI and three runs; senior batterymate Brittney Baptista 1-for-4 with stolen bag and two runs; classmate Jess Potter 1-for-2 with an RBI; and junior Summer Bergeron 1-for-2 with a run.
“Every time I call on Megan, she pitches very well,” noted skipper Craig Giarrusso. “She hasn’t really missed a beat since her sophomore year. She’s very steady, and it’s like she has ice water in her veins. Nothing seems to rattle her.
“She’s pitched some great games this year,” he continued. “In the first seven, we didn’t do much of anything offensively, so she was a hard-luck loser, but we’re starting to come around with the bat. When we lost to (two-time defending state D-I champion) North Kingstown, 3-1, we made a couple of errors which blew it for us, but we played very well. We did a nice job against their pitcher, Kiara Oliver, who’s the two-time Rhode Island Gatorade Player of the Year. “Ever since then, we’ve been hitting.” Salzillo also was the recipient of some outstanding defense, with sophomore second baseman Jaylee Martinez manufacturing four putouts of the 18.
“She missed her freshman year due to foot surgery, but she’s been a great asset defensively for this team,” he said. “She’s done everything we’ve asked of her.”
It didn’t take long for the Tigers to notch what proved to be the winning run off of eventual losing hurler Katelyn Hawes. After Salzillo fanned the side in the first, junior Ally Larson opened the back half with a scorched single off junior shortstop Alexis LaBelle’s leg, and Marchese walked.
Salzillo then reached on a dropped fly in left, which loaded the bases, yet Baptista’s bounder to third allowed TG junior Quinn Freeman to throw out Larson at the plate. Marchese nevertheless scored, tagging on Coken’s foul out to right.
That’s when Maillet crushed a two-run double to deep left, and she hustled to third on an errant toss to the cutoff, though the Tigers stranded her there.
Salzillo lost her no-hit bid in the top of the third after junior No. 9 hitter Kendra Silvia flared a soft, one-out single to left, though Giarusso’s crew tacked on two more in the third after Marchese roped a leadoff ground hit to center.
She moved to second on Salzillo’s groundout to short and third on Baptista’s infield single, then sprinted in on Coken’s fielder’s choice, and Maillet took a “freebie” to load the bases. Potter then rapped an opposite-field single to left to plate Baptista and gain a 5-0 cushion.
Tolman recorded another trio in the fourth after Bergeron floated a hit down the line in right. With one down, Marchese smoked a double to right to plate her, and Salzillo followed with another one to deep center.
Coken scored Salzillo with a lined single to center, giving the Tigers the 8-0 advantage.
In the interim, Salzillo retired 13 straight (and 20 of 22) before sophomore Ashley Armstrong and senior Jamie Legault mustered a pair of two-out hits in the seventh.
“We had a slow start, but we kept battling,” Giarrusso explained. “We were in a lot of those first seven losses; we weren’t really getting blown out. We just had to suffer through it before the bats woke up. We’re playing good softball right now.”