EAST BOSTON – Kennedy Reyes fired off a six-hit, three-walk, complete-game shutout to lead Suffolk softball to a 1-0 victory against Norwich in the first of a two-game GNAC series Wednesday afternoon at East Boston Memorial Park.
THE BASICS
SCORE: Suffolk 1 | Norwich 0
RECORDS: Suffolk (14-12, 4-1 GNAC) | Norwich (8-11, 2-5 GNAC)
HOW IT HAPPENED
After Reyes' retired the side in the opening inning, all the scoring Suffolk needed came in the bottom of the first. Caitlin Murphy drew a walk to start things off and sniped second to keep the Cadets defense on their toes. A single to center from Grace Boehler placed Murphy on third and Ashley Zulla's ground out to short scored what would be the game-winning.
Reyes limited Norwich to one hit in the next two innings before the Cadets threatened in the fourth. Three straight singled juiced the bags and put the Rams in a predicament. Jaclyn Davis waltzed to the circle to calm down the shaky Suffolk defense and it worked as shortstop Jaclyn Flint successful connected with Zulla at the plate for back-to-back putouts to tact two outs on the board. All the ducks remained in the pond for the visitors, however, but third baseman McKenzie McGrath went for the force out at first on Madelyn Folcik at bat to keep the Cadets scoreless.
After getting through the fourth frame hurdle, Norwich threated again in the sixth with runners on second and third. This time, however, the visitors already had two down, which set up McGrath's inning-ending ground out.
In the seventh, Reyes kept her foot on the gas pedal and only gave up a two-out single before locking up the shutout with a fly out to center.
PITCHERS PICTURE
- Reyes' complete-game effort featured six hits, three walks and four strikeouts.
- Brittany Vandergroef went the distance for the Cadets as well. She let up one run on four hits and three walks with one K.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
- Suffolk finished the outing with four hits, half of which were produced by Flint (2-2).
- Murphy, who scored the lone run of the day, tallied one hit, one walk and one stolen base.
- Boehler rounded out the Rams with hits with one on her stat line.
- Zulla notched the only RBI of the outing.
NOTEWORTHY
- Suffolk defeated Norwich for the fifth consecutive contest to improve to 30-19 all-time against the Cadets.
- The Rams are now 11-4 versus Norwich in the Davis era.
- Reyes recorded her second complete-game shutout of her career.
- Reyes improved to 6-3 in the circle.
POST-GAME PIC
COMING UP
Suffolk and Norwich wrap up the two-game series tonight.
