Softball – Donovan Catholic roars past Howell and into Shore Conference Finals

Both in the field and up and down the lineup the Donovan Catholic Griffins roared past the Howell Rebels in the Shore Conference Softball Tournament semifinals by a score of 13-0.

It's onto the SCT finals for the number one ranked team in the state coach Debbie Schwartz has rolling along.

The game was scoreless after one inning of play on a cool late spring day at the softball home of the Griffins but they still sent six hitters to the plate and two of them walked (Sophomore's Jayda Kearney and Karina Gaskins).

Two straight walks started up the Griffins half of the second inning followed by an Amanda MacBurnie (Senior) double which she herself scored on due to two throwing errors and when she crossed the plate it was 3-0.

This was the turning point in a game where once the Griffins scored, they never looked back.

Senior Alexa Pagano walked and stole a base on her way to third but the threat ended when the next three hitters made outs.

The third inning was pure hitting and execution when the Griffins sent nine players to the plate (not including the sacrifice fly by Sophomore Kayla Roncin or walks by Jayda Kearney and Lyndsey Nelson) and scored six runs.

Consecutive singles by Junior Lindsey Hay, Junior Lindsay Nelson and Senior Kati Vazquez loaded up the bases to begin the third and they all would later score on another double by MacBurnie.

A Roncin sacrifice fly brought in another run before a Gaskins double.

The Griffins then led by a score of 9-0 after three innings of play that included four singles and two doubles in a big six-run third.

A single by Vazquez started up the fourth inning before a Pagano double later brought her around to score.

To top off the scoring came back-to-back home runs launched well beyond the center field fence by the 3-4 hitters, Roncin and Gaskins to put the Griffins up 13-0 that became the final score after 4.5 innings of play.

Box Score:

Donovan Catholic 13, Howell 0

               1    2     3    4    5

Howell   0    0     0    0    0

D.C.        0    3     6     4    -

Pitching:

Donovan Catholic:

Starting Pitcher: Lindsey Nelson (W), 4.0-IP, 6-K's, 1-BB, 4-H, 0-R, 0-ER, 0-HBP on 66-pitches.

Howell:

Starting Pitcher: Cassidy Predale (L), 2-2/3-IP, 1-K, 3-BB, 6-H, 8-R, 5-ER, 0-HBP on 83-pitches.

Top Hitters:

Donovan Catholic:

Kayla Roncin, 2-3, 1-1B, Sacrifice-Fly, Groundout and HomeRun.

Karina Gaskins, 2-3, 1-BB, Groundout, 1-2B and HomeRun.

Lynday Hey, 2-4, 2-1B and 2-Popups to ShortStop.

Howell:

Kristina Pelano, 2-2, 1-1B and 1-2B.

Here are Kayla Roncin and Karina Gaskins post-game discussing the big win over Howell: