Vikings make 1st inning run hold up in 1-0 win over Unionville

EAST MARLBOROUGH—Good defense is a pitcher’s best friend, and when the bats aren’t exactly red hot, it can make all the difference in the world.

Tuesday afternoon against Unionville, West Chester East (10-3) played stellar defense behind starting pitcher Jess Gomez, and made a single first inning run hold up as the game winner in a 1-0 shutout of Unionville (8-6).

“Hats off to Unionville, they are obviously a tough team capable of beating anyone if they put it all together in the same game,” said WC East coach Bobby Swier. “We haven’t hit the ball really well the past couple days, but the common factor, whether it’s Oliva (Ronayne) or Jess (Gomez) pitching, the girls are getting it done on defense.”

For her part, Gomez was in complete command in the circle, earning the pitching win with a complete game shutout. The Vikings hurler allowed just two hits—both to Indians’ lead-off hitter Analise Griffiths. She struck out nine, and did not walk a batter.

“I know a couple girls on that team, and I know there’s some girls that can hit,” said Gomez. “I was working my curveball a lot today, trying to go inside as much as I could to keep hitters at bay. Our defense played really well and together today. We just have to get that bats going the way we know we can. Our bats kind of fell off there. But we’ll work on it and get back on track.”

Having an early lead—even if only a run–works wonders for a team.

“We didn’t really talk about the score much,” said Gomez. “But once you’re out front, you feel a little more comfortable, and don’t press as much. We have a lot of confidence in each other.”

The Vikings engineered a two-out rally to notch the game’s only run. Amanda Gomez got the offense going, taking a pitch to the opposite field for a single. Jess Gomez was next, and took one for the team, reaching base when she was hit by a pitch. The Vikings loaded the bases when Amelia Lark reached on an error.

Up to the plate came Ronayne, and the lefty hit a little blooper to short left field, where it dropped in for a base hit, scoring Amanda Gomez in the process.

“There were two outs, so with the bases loaded, I definitely felt a little pressure to get it done,” said Ronayne. “But I wanted to do what I could to get us going. The pitch was a little inside, and I just fought it off and hit it the best I could.”

Despite getting at least one base runner in every inning of the game, the Vikings never really threatened again. Lark, Ronayne, Amanda Gomez and Alex each had two hits on the afternoon.

Unionville threatened in the bottom half of the seventh, when Deshaies reached on the lone Vikings’ error of the day, stole second and moved up to third on a one-out groundout. The Indians grounded out to second to leave DeShaies stranded.

Despite another quality effort in the circle from the Indians’ Sydney Horan, who took the loss despite allowing just one unearned run in seven innings of work, while striking out five and walking just one, fall to 8-6. They are still on top of the Ches-Mont American and in the hunt for a berth in the class 6A playoffs, but time is winding down.

“It’s frustrating,” said Indians’ coach Carly DiVirgilio. “It seems like every loss is by one run. We’re not playing badly at all. We’re just not stringing the hits together, or getting the timely hits we need to win the close games. But we just have to get back to working on situational hitting and keep having fun. It won’t help to get down on ourselves.”

The Vikings, who improve to 10-3 on the season, began the week sitting atop the District 1, Class 5A Power rankings. A win over a solid 6A team like Unionville is likely to cement their position.

West Chester East 1 Unionville 0
WC East AB R H RBI Unionville AB R H RBI
Thompson—CF 3 0 0 0 Griffiths—CF 3 0 2 0
McLaughlin—2B 4 0 0 0 Boorse—LF 3 0 0 0
A Gomez—LF 4 1 2 0 Deshaies—SS 3 0 0 0
J Gomez—P 3 0 0 0 Horan—P 3 0 0 0
Lark—SS 4 0 2 0 Salisbury—C 3 0 0 0
Ronayne—3B 2 0 2 1 A Panati—2B 3 0 0 0
Hall—C 3 0 0 0 D Panati—3B 2 0 0 0
Douglas—RF 3 0 2 0 Dreher—1B 2 0 0 0
Dudley—1B 1 0 0 0 Jones—DP 2 0 0 0
Totals 27 1 8 1 Totals 24 0 2 0

Extra base hits: None

WC East 1 0 0 0 0 0 0—1
Unionville 0 0 0 0 0 0 0—0

Pitching IP R H BB K
WC East
J Gomez (W) 7 0 2 0 9
Unionville
Horan (L) 7 2 8 1 5