Opportunistic Blue Demons cash in on Unionville growing pains
By Dave Conard Sports Editor, UnionvilleTimes.com
Kennett catcher Brit Skodzinski applies the tag to Unionville sophomore Mackenzie Gros to end the second inning
EAST MARLBOROUGH—At first glance Cali Beeson and Katie DeStefano appear to be your typical teenagers, negotiating their way through the hall ways of Kennett High School as they manage to juggle a hectic class schedule along with keeping up with today’s demanding social networking load.
On the softball field the duo have been terrorizing local pitchers for quite some time, dating back to April of 2010 when they claimed KAU players of the week honors.
On Wednesday afternoon their latest victims were cross town rival Unionville as Beeson, who smacked a bases loaded triple in the first inning plating three runs, and DeStefano combined for 6 hits, 3 runs scored and 5 RBI in the Blue Demons first win of the season a 14-6 win over the host Indians.
Indians third basemen Madi Ross catches Kennett's Cali Beeson in arund down at third
“It was very important for us to get off to a fast start,” said Kennett head coach Kevin Reigel. “We were coming off of two tough losses against some very good teams and we knew it would be important to score some runs early. We have not been hitting the ball well until today, which is a great sign.”
Another sign of how the Blue Demons (1-2) day would go was the command of the strike zone that hurler Brooke Harner, who also chipped in offensively with three base hits, had early on, as she worked out of a first inning jam then settled in to allow only two base runners over the next four innings recording three strike outs while walking only one Indians batter.
“My rise ball was working today,” said Harner, a Kennett sophomore. “This is a great way to get on track, it’s sort of a disadvantage that their hitter know us so well, but we also know them very well, so you have to avoid making a mistake to the wrong person at the plate.”
As the energy level had tapered off and it looked as though Unionville would work their way back into the game, Kennett regained command in the top of the fifth inning capitalizing on two fielding errors as the young Indians mishandled a routine ground ball of the bat of Carly Chapman to lead off the inning, allowing Morgan Kollmeier to open the flood gates as she unleashed a bomb into left center field, driving in Chapman igniting the five run rally.
“We need to make plays behind our pitchers,” said Janelle Hadly who is in her first season in a return to the Unionville bench. “We showed some jitters today, we need to tighten it up defensively, to their credit they were able to take advantage of the mistakes we made, we have a freshman and four sophomores that are seeing a lot of playing time, so these things will happen.”
Unionville's Amy Large was the victim of some fielding faux pas in Wednesday loss to Kennett
The Indians responded to the Kennett outburst with some fireworks of their own in the home fifth and sixth as Unionville posted 5 runs in their last two at bats fueled by doubles from Kate Mims and Kelly Christian along with an RBI single by sophomore Mackenzie Gross, who led off the second inning with a double only to be thrown out at home by DeStefano later in the inning, and a triple off the bat of Colleen Hoge.
“I am excited to be playing in a game like this,” said Gross. “Of course when you get on base you want to score, the biggest change from JV last year to starting on varsity this year is the speed of the game and how talented everyone is. It has been a great atmosphere so far and we are really looking forward to this season.”
Due to the softball concluding well after the baseball game was over the box score was not available, but in Ches-Mont League baseball action Unionville out lasted Kennett 8-7 as both squads combined to help the Kennett Square/ Unionville community by having people in attendance bring food items to donate, which will be distributed through out the area to those in need.
To view a complete gallery of the 300 photos take during the game, paste and click the following link to order prints.
http://www.photostockplus.com/home.php?tmpl=159&user_id=63742&action=viewalbum&event=1055573
Kennett (1-2) 3 1 0 0 0 5 5 -14
Unionville (1-1) 1 0 0 0 0 3 2 -6
Kennett Blue Demons
| Pos | Player |
AB |
R |
H |
RBI |
| cf | Kollmeier |
5 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
| 2b | DeStefano |
5 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
| c | Skodzinski |
5 |
3 |
3 |
3 |
| rf | Beeson |
4 |
0 |
1 |
4 |
| p | Harner |
5 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
| cr | Malino |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
| 1b | Slicer |
5 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
| 3b | Bonifacino |
5 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
| lf | Tavoni |
5 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| ss | Chapman |
3 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
| Totals |
42 |
14 |
18 |
12 |
|
Unionville Indians
| Pos | Player |
AB |
R |
H |
RBI |
| cf | Hammond |
4 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
| 2b | Hoge |
4 |
2 |
3 |
0 |
| 1b/ rf | Large |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
| c | Mims |
3 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
| run | Brown |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
| ss | Carlino |
0 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
| rf | Miller |
4 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
| dh | Christian |
3 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
| rf/1b | Gross |
3 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
| 3b | Ross |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| flx | Beckman | ||||
| Totals |
26 |
6 |
14 |
5 |
2B- Gross (U), Mims (U), Christian (U), Kollmeier (K), DeStefano (K), Beeson (K) 3B- Hoge (U), Kollmeier (K), DeStefano (K), HR- none.
Unionville sophomore Mackenzie Gross rapped two hits in the loss to Kennett
