Sox to play Gonzalez in left
MANCHESTER - There have been four state championships and some great stories at Bishop Guertin High School this spring, and you can add softball to the list.
There will be no championship for the softball playing Cardinals. Their somewhat unlikely run to the Final Foul ended when Concord scored in the bottom of the seventh for a 2-1 semifinal victory Friday at Southern New Hampshire University.
But seconds after the winning run crossed the plate, Bishop Guertin fans broke into a spontaneous standing ovation as the Cardinals slowly walked off the field.
Losers of their last three regular-season games and an 8-10 ninth seed entering the tournament, BG followed a mild first round upset at Dover with a stunner, a 2-1 victory on the road at top-seeded Salem.
Friday the Cardinals, with just three seniors on the roster, gave perennial power Concord, the fourth seed, all it could handle.
"It was a great run by them,'' Concord coach Duke Sawyer said, "and they did it all on the road. Anybody that can go to Salem and win ... you've got to respect that.
"We knew we were in for a tough game because they beat us 3-1 during the season.''
The Cardinals certainly had chances to win it. They loaded the bases twice against Concord starter Kelsey Martel, and even had their best hitter, Jacklyn Dubois, up with the bases loaded in the fifth. She hit a hard smash up the middle that Martel managed to stab and throw to first.
"She's a great hitter, one of the best,'' Sawyer said. "That wasn't the player we wanted to see up there with the bases loaded and that's why we walked her the last time she was up.''
The Cardinals, limited to just one hit over the first six innings, would get four in the seventh off Concord reliever Katelyn Kennard to tie the game, including an RBI single to left by Laura Robinson. But BG ran into an out on the bases that kept them from having a bigger inning.
Leading off the bottom of the seventh, Concord's Amy Morin hit a towering fly to center that flew over the head of Bishop Guertin center fielder MacKenzie Marr. Morin rounded second and headed for third, drawing a relay throw, and scored when the throw skidded into the Concord dugout.
Up until then, the only damage Concord managed to do against Bishop Guertin starter Lauren Bingham, who finished with a two-hitter, was an unearned run in the third, the result of two walks and two errors.
"Lauren has a great drop pitch,'' Yates said. "She's not overpowering, but she keeps batters off balance. In her four year she's come a long way to get to this stage.''
Over the first five innings the Cardinals managed just one hit, a fourth inning single by Kenzie McCabe, off Concord starter Kelsey Martel, who struck out eight. But she's been sharing the pitching load while recovering from a late-season injury and will likely combine with Kennard again today in the 4:30 final against Alvirne.
"I think, morale wise, the kids got excited when they changed pitchers,'' Yates said. "But they were able to make the plays behind her.''
Still, it a big step forward for the Bishop Guertin softball program.
"We know what it's like now to get to the Final Four,'' Yates said. "That's got to help us in the future.''
