Cavaliers win slugfest with Sabers

AMHERST - One-run softball games don't often take long.

One-run softball games don't often have 41 combined runs scored. Nor 34 hits. Or 31 RBIs. Or 21 walks. Or seven home runs.

Friday night's high school game between Hollis/Brookline and Souhegan had all of that, and still it came down to a play at the plate that turned into the game's final out and a 21-20 win for the Cavaliers in a game that took nearly three hours to complete. That final out came just minutes before 11 p.m., the start delayed an hour and a half because the junior varsity game took over three hours to play - and also ended in a 21-20 H/B win.

How does that happen twice? Well, it was Friday the 13th.

Where to begin? Maybe with the home runs. Souhegan hit five of them, four off the bats of players with the last name of Mukai. Sammy Jones also belted a seventh-inning grand slam that got the Sabers within one run. Add in a home run during the junior varsity game, and that makes eight on the day.

Both also left a combined total of 24 runners on base, an unbelievable amount considering the score. Through three innings, Souhegan had  stranded nine runners, leaving the bases loaded in every inning.

H/B took a five-run lead after the top half of the first inning, an eight-run lead after the top of the second, and a 12-run lead after the top of the fourth. In fact, the Cavs had the Sabers just six outs away from ending the game early due to the mercy rule.

The Cavs had the first seven batters of the first inning reach safely thanks to three hits, two walks and two errors. Up 5-0 with runners on first and third, H/B tried a double steal only to have both runners thrown out.

Souhegan got a run back in the first, but the Cavs scored four more runs in the second, getting a three-run homer from Charli Bradshaw and a solo shot from Sarah Drazin.

But the Sabers answered with power of their own. Val and Andrea Mukai each hit a two-run homer in the second as Souhegan cut the lead to 9-5.

H/B blew the game open in the third, sending 13 batters to the plate and scoring seven runs on five hits, four walks, an error and a couple of wild pitches to lead 16-5. After holding Souhegan scoreless in the bottom of the inning - one of only three scoreless at bats for either team - the Cavs added another run to go up 12 and put themselves in position for an early win.

Souhegan responded with two run in the bottom of the fourth, and after putting the Cavs down in order in the fifth, the Sabers had a big inning of their own. Souhegan had 11 batters in the fifth, scoring eight times in an inning that included a three-run home run by Val Mukai (seven RBIs) and a two-run homer from Andrea Mukai.

All of a sudden, H/B's lead was 17-15, as one Souhegan player could be heard in the dugout asking, "did that really happen?"

The Cavs again appeared to put the game away in their next two at bats, scoring two runs each in the sixth and seventh to go up 21-15. But again, the Sabers rallied, scoring a run on a passed ball to make it a five-run game, and pulling within one on Jones' grand slam.

Souhegan might have tied it on that shot, but Cori Sousa was called out on the bases when a batted ball hit her two batters before Jones' homer.

With two out in the inning and runners on second and third, Val Mukai hit a ground ball to third base. The play looked routine, but the throw from H/B's Samantha Spargo was off the mark.

First baseman Bernadette Abt was able to knock down the throw and scoop up the ball as Souhegan's Katlyn Dumais rounded third and headed for home. Abt's throw was on the mark and Bradshaw put the tag on Dumais to keep the tying run from scoring and bringing an end to the game.

Bradshaw finished the game 3-for-5 with five runs scored and three RBIs while Drazin was 2-for-4 with four runs and three RBIs. Abt had four hits, three runs scored and three RBIs and Kayla Sliger had three hits, a run and a RBI while Kaitlyn Sliger had two hits, two RBIs and a run scored. Kirsten Bergen scored three times and had two hits and pitched 6 2/3 innings, striking out six and giving up 15 hits and 15 walks.

Val Mukai was 3-for-6 and drove in seven runs while Jones was 3-for-4 with five RBIs and two runs and Andrea Mukai was 3-for-4 with four runs and four RBIs, and also pitched 2 2/3 innings, giving up 12 hits and three walks before being replaced by Dumais.

The two teams will play again in Hollis on May 23.