Game-saving home run, clutch rallies and more: Milton High softball outlasts Braintree

BRAINTREE – Alona Lynch, Hannah Andrews and the Milton High softball team put their clutch plate appearances to good use on Monday.

But, if you really want to know what's like to come through under pressure, just ask Braintree's Eva Surette. The sophomore has been there, and done that.

After Braintree used eight hits and seven runs in the sixth inning to climb back from an eight-run deficit, Surette found herself at the plate in the bottom of the seventh down a run, 11-10, with two outs and a pair of strikes to the count. Her back was against the wall; it was the Wamps' last chance.

That was until she cranked a solo shot over the right-center field fence to knot things up and force extras, though it wasn't enough to earn the victory. Milton outlasted Braintree on the road, 15-11, in 10 innings.

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“Halfway down the first base line, I looked up and saw that it was far,” Surette laughed. It was her second over-the-fence homer of the season. “I don’t know – I knew I had two strikes, I just needed to make contact with it. And I did.”

Little did Braintree know, however, but Lynch and Andrews would have answers for its rally when the 10th rolled around.

Milton head coach Emma May subbed Andrews in as a pinch hitter and the junior pulled through with a RBI double to right field, scoring senior Lila Glenn to put the Wildcats ahead 12-11.

“She’s come in clutch for us on a couple of occasions this season so I knew she could handle the pressure," May said. "(I was) just trying to mix up the intensity there after 10 innings of doing the same thing so it paid off. After that, we started to get a rally going so it worked out.”

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The rally May alluded to all started with a RBI base-hit from Mackenzie Mullaney to extend the lead to two runs, until Lynch – who also shut the door on the Wamps with a pair of strikeouts on the mound to seal the win – knocked a double of her own to right-center field, pushing the lead to 15-11.

Lynch went 4-for-5 at the plate with two walks and 3 RBI, while also striking out 8 on the mound.

“She’s just an amazing leader: brings up the girls, unifies everybody and is always focused on softball while we’re here. She’s just an amazing person to have. And then, of course, her bat and pitching are some of the best on the team," May said of Lynch. "All-around, she’s an amazing player. Her power at the plate is just unbelievable. She’s just a really powerful player, but still stays a real team player for the girls. It’s really fun to watch her.”

Lynch said postgame that she's at her best in the batter's box with a clear mind: “For me, even if I have two strikes, I just think of it as a fresh count. I think that definitely helps me, being able to imagine it as my first time up at the plate.” She had to take a similar approach onto the mound throughout the sticky sixth inning, where Braintree rallied back from down eight runs (Milton had led 6-1 after the fourth inning and 11-3 after its half of the sixth).

After two quick outs in the sixth, Braintree ripped off six consecutive hits until Milton committed an error, then the Wamps continued the streak with another two. The entire lineup (Jaclyn and Catherine McPhee, Surette, Bella Wuestefeld, Ally McNamee, Lily Stanley, Alison Curran, Gabby Diaute and Savana Littlewood) made solid contact.

“I definitely was nervous, it had me shaken up a little bit,” Lynch laughed. “I feel like I was having good pitches, having good outcomes throughout the whole game and then that one inning, they just got a piece of my ball. I definitely feel like once we made adjustments on the field, that definitely helped me on the mound.”

“It's always a good game against Braintree, our games always go back-and-forth so I wasn’t really surprised," May said. "I mean, we got that many runs in an inning so why can’t they? They’re a great team, offensively, so I knew it was a possibility. And our games are always high-scoring with them, we’re very evenly matched.”

And the stats were comparable: Milton had 24 hits on Monday, Braintree churned out 21 despite falling behind early.

“We preach that it only takes one pitch (to turn things around),” Braintree coach Katie Jenkins said. “They understand it doesn’t matter if there’s two strikes, it doesn’t matter if there’s two outs ¯ they have another pitch coming.”

In more hot hitting, Milton sophomore catcher Shakura Lynch finished 5-for-7 with a double and a triple and Glenn went 3-for-4 and reached on an error. For Braintree, McNamee went 3-for-5 and nearly beat out an infield grounder for the win in the ninth.

“It certainly got them loud on the bench and kept them going with confidence," Jenkins said of the comeback bid. "They were able to battle, they really fought hard today.”

In the first MIAA power rankings, Milton came in as the 19th team in Division 2, while Braintree was 24th in Division 1. These two teams faced in the preliminary round of the tournament a season ago and the Milton advanced with a 10-3 win. Braintree took the first meeting this season on April 25 by a 4-0 score.

“(Monday's win) is huge,” said May. “To play an opponent like Braintree and win, it’s huge because it’s always neck-and-neck with them. It’s kind of proving to ourselves that we can handle it at this level.”

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Milton High softball rallies to find answer, defeats Braintree