Rams' Softball Season Ends in Tough Loss at Bacon Academy

The young Rockville High School softball team ran out of magic on Friday against top seeded Bacon Academy in the quarterfinals of the state tournament with a 5-2 loss in Colchester.

“We have a young team and it showed today,” Rockville Head Coach Frank Levick said. “We were playing really hard but the inexperienced mistakes really showed today. Kaitlyn Lajoie really pitched her heart out and she gave it everything she had. But Bacon Academy has some really good players on their team and they got the win.”

Makaila Kowalsky ended Rockville’s two game shutout streak with the first at bat for Bacon Academy when she hit a deep ball in to centerfield and rounded the bases for a solo home run. The Bobcats would pick up four runs in the bottom of the first inning with RBI hits from Kelsey McCarthy and Allie Carey.  Carey hit a two-RBI single with the bases loaded and only one out.

After allowing four earned runs in the first inning, Rockville starting pitcher Kaitlyn Lajoie settled down and did not give up another earned run for the rest of the game. Lajoie finished the game with four strikeouts.

Bacon Academy’s Jamie Correia picked up the victory for the Bobcats as she only allowed two runs and four hits while striking out four.

The Rams’ chances appeared good at the top of the second when Rockville cut the deficit in half with RBI sacrifice hits from Courtney Oliva and Megan Gardiner. Rockville had bases loaded with no outs when Oliva hit a groundball to the infield and was thrown out at first, but it wasn’t for naught as Elissa Graf scored for the Rams.

Gardiner followed up with her own ground ball and also got thrown out at first, but pinch runner Kayla Terry safely slid into home to close the gap to two runs.

In the bottom of the third, the Bobcats were able to swing the momentum back their way with an unfortunate bounce for the Rams off of a hit from Bacon’s Michelle Dander. A ground ball headed Michelle Correia’s way but took a last second hop and the second baseman couldn’t field the ball cleanly.  McCarthy scored and pushed the Bobcats lead to 5-2, the game’s final score.

Even though the Rams fell short in the quarterfinals game, Levick said it was a great season overall for his team.

“We finished the season at 15-5 and that’s pretty good for a young team,” Levick said. “We won our conference and we met all of our goals we had at the beginning of the season. “

“This team really adapted well for such a young team,” he said. “There were a lot of players on this team that were playing new positions and they had to get used to it.”

Of the players who made the switch are second baseman, Michelle Correia, a former pitcher; left fielder Courtney Oliva, also a former pitcher; and Emily Burg and Megan Gardiner who are newly to the outfield.

Levick knew his team was up against a tough task in Friday’s game at Bacon but said the team played hard and never gave up.

Levick also said that he is excited about next season with all of the young talent coming back despite losing their lone senior and star player, Brianna Levick.

“We have the potential to be really good next season because we got this far and we are returning almost every starter,” Coach Levick said. “We have to work hard in the offseason if we want to get past this round a year from now. We got to get out there and work on hitting and pitchers got to work on pitching in order to be a tough team next year.”