NEWPORT — Sunapee High pitcher Ellie Frederick tossed a one-hitter on a day the homeless Lakers softball team posted back-to-back wins, 3-0 and 8-3, over Farmington in a doubleheader played in Newport on Saturday afternoon.
The games were played in Newport as the Sunapee facility continues to be unplayable.
“We haven’t even been able to practice on our field,” Lakers head coach Bonnie Cruz said. “We practice in the parking lot.”
It was a day of mixed emotions for Frederick, who dazzled the Tigers in the first game, then had to leave the game in the sixth inning of the second game when she injured her left hand sliding into third base.
“It was the best game I pitched all year,” Frederick said before the injury. “And it was against a good team. They beat Wilton (2-0 on Monday) and Wilton beat us (17-5 on April 16).”
Frederick took a no-hitter into the seventh inning of game one before giving up a leadoff single. A walk followed and both runners advanced on an infield out, but Frederick got an out at home plate and a strikeout to keep the shutout intact.
Frederick ended up with 10 strikeouts with just a couple of walks and a hit batsman in throwing 84 pitches.
Farmington, now 5-4 this season, also got a nice pitching performance from Haley Maynard as all three Sunapee runs were scored with some help.
In the first inning the Lakers got a run on a walk, passed ball, a wild pitch and an error.
In the second, Kathryn Hastings had a single, stole second then came around when Mackenzie Wrightington’s single to right was kicked around by the outfielder. In the seventh, the third Sunapee run came about when Frederick walked, stole second, went to third on an error and scored on Tess Palin’s base hit.
Sunapee had seven hits in the game, two by Hastings.
The Lakers’ Hannah Cooney was nearly as sharp as Frederick in game two. The slinging southpaw had an 11-strikeout game with no walks in the five-hitter. The only real bad pitch she surrendered was to Farmington’s Jilly Stevens, who took her over the left field fence for a two-run homer in the fifth.
Farmington sent Maynard back on the mound in the second game after throwing 122 pitches in game one. It didn’t work, as Sunapee scored four runs on six hits in the first two innings before Maynard was lifted.
After scoring a run in the first inning on a Palin single, the Lakers added a three spot in the second, the big blow a two-run triple by Miah Hamm. Frederick had a double in the fifth and eventually scored on an infield out and the Lakers locked it up with three in the sixth, which included an RBI triple by Cooney.
The twin wins put the Lakers at 4-3 with home games scheduled this week starting on Monday against Hinsdale.