Round 2 of Woodland, Watertown goes to Indians

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Woodland’s Emily Wirsing slides in safe at home for the Hawk’s first run against Watertown Monday afternoon in Beacon Falls. The Indians won the game, 15-5. –KEN MORSE

BEACON FALLS — This game played on a diamond with four bases can be so unforgiving. Ten runs do not separate the talent between the 10-5 Woodland Hawks and the 11-4 Watertown Indians. Yet in the second game of the softball season, Woodland traveled to Watertown and battered the Indians by a 15-4 count.

On Monday in Beacon Falls it was payback time as Watertown hammered Woodland, 15-5.

Every ball that Woodland hit was a hard smash that somehow found a glove. The routine ground balls hit by Watertown were thrown in the dirt or booted away.

“I don’t know how many hard balls we hit into outs,” said Woodland coach Loren Luddy, who could only offer a smile as to what took place. “Watertown was making some unbelievable plays. I really can’t fault our fielders. We weren’t making mental errors. We were trying too hard to hurry our plays because Watertown has so much speed on the bases. Once you make that first error it just opens the door.”

A single and a walk got it started in the first inning for the Indians and Kallie Borkowski did the most damage with a two-run single. A couple of errors chased home the third run of the frame.

Nicole Fowler made a head-first dive on a sinking line drive to right field and the snow cone catch with the bases loaded stemmed the tide.

In the bottom half, Brooke Leshin (three hits) reached on an infield single and Emily Wirsing (three hits) pounded one right up the middle to set the table for the Hawks.

Watertown pitcher Toni Risucci got out of the threat with one of only two Woodland strikeouts of the game before jamming Rachel Starkey on a hard grounder to third.

Nicole Hodorowski unloaded a two-run triple in the second inning as two more errors hampered the pitching efforts of Angie Wirsing and the Hawks faced a 7-0 deficit.

Woodland retaliated with two runs in the third. Walks to the Wirsings got it started and a run-scoring double from Natalie Veneri cut the lead at 7-2.

Stephanie Kiley came on in relief of Angie Wirsing in the fourth inning as Watertown tacked on four more runs, including Olivia Gugliotti’s two-run homer.

A two-run triple from Borkowski in the fifth opened the door again for Watertown as the Hawks committed their sixth error of the game. Alyssa Skibo hauled in a fly ball to left but Borkowski scored on the sacrifice fly to make it a 14-2 deficit.

In the bottom of the fifth, Leshin and Emily Wirsing singled. Then the mystic of the game took over as Watertown escaped again. Courtney Jurzynski got into a pitch and drove a smash up the first base side. The first baseman somehow got her glove around the blast and dove for the bag to complete a double play and end the threat.

It was 15-2 when Woodland came to bat in the last of the seventh inning. Samantha Solomon came on as a pinch hitter to try to spark the Hawks. Brianna Pacileo reached base on the first Watertown error of the game before Leshin singled and Emily Wirsing hit a two-run single.

Veneri belted a run-scoring single to make it a 15-5 game before Watertown recorded the final out.

Woodland will play Thursday at Seymour before hosting three of its final four, starting with Derby on Friday. The Hawks will be at Ansonia on Monday, against Wolcott on Tuesday, and will host Crosby on Thursday at 6 p.m.