What are promises good for? For Johnston softball, a playoff win.
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JOHNSTON – After giving up a first inning run, Haley Boudreau made a promise to herself that she wasn’t going to let another runner cross home plate.
She kept that promise – adding a certain degree of difficulty – and helped the Johnston softball escape with a win that might change its postseason fortunes.
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Boudreau took over the game in the right spots, but Johnston didn’t get its first lead of the game until there were two outs in the sixth. That’s where Mariah Fleury’s cue shot down the first base line somehow found a path to fair territory, bringing home the go-ahead run that Boudreau made stick with a 1-2-3 seventh in a dramatic 2-1 win over Ponaganset in the winners’ bracket quarterfinals of the Division II Tournament.
“Honestly the most nervous I was was probably [to play] Pono,” Boudreau said. “They beat us at our home field, so I was very nervous. You could tell we were down. Pulling out the win means so much to me.”
The game was a brilliant pitchers duel between Boudreau and Ponaganset sophomore Mattea Mello and ended up being decided by physics.
Johnston had struggled to do anything productive against Mello. The Panthers scored the game-tying run when the Chieftains turned an error into two, letting Fleury scamper home from third.
Mello walked Kendall Duguay to open the sixth and gave up a one-out single she followed with another K. With Duguay on third and Layla Bryand on second, Fleury – the No. 9 hitter – was just looking to make contact.
On a 1-2 pitch, she made a late defensive swing at one of Mello’s offerings and hit the ball with the end of the bat. The ball came off with violent sidespin, starting in foul territory and making its way down the line. Fleury stood still and watched, then realized running would be a good idea.
As she stepped toward first, the ball started spinning left. It reached fair territory before anyone could get to it and by the time it was picked up, Fleury had reached first safely and Duguay crossed with the go-ahead run.
“She was just so nonchalant,” said Boudreau of Fleury. “I knew she was going to get the ball in play one way or another because she always does. I was just very proud of her.
“I’m glad that whoever was on third base ran home and was heads up on that, because I probably wouldn’t have run home.”
“It didn’t go far, but I still got on base and the run still scored,” Fleury said. “… I thought it was foul. I stopped and then noticed it was going fair, so I ran to first.”
With their first lead of the game, Boudreau was clinical in the seventh, sandwiching a ground ball to second with two strikeouts, including the 900th of her career.
Boudreau was at her best in the toughest moments the entire game. She gave up a first-pitch single to Claire Barrett, who stole second and then scored on an RBI single by Mia Duncan. That annoyed Boudreau, who then decided the Chieftains were done.
In the moments where it looked like Ponaganset was going to get to Boudreau, the senior was at her best. She gave up two singles to open the third, got a groundout, then walked the bases loaded before ending the threat with two strikeouts.
In the fourth, Boudreau gave up back-to-back one out singles, then picked up a strikeout and induced a ground ball to put the inning to bed. In the fifth, Cora Miller ripped a leadoff triple and didn’t go anywhere. Ponaganset loaded the bases with one out thanks to two walks, but Boudreau got a soft liner to first and a strikeout to end that inning.
“Usually I tend to give up on myself, but I was like ‘they can’t get on base, we’re going to leave them to one run. They’re not going to get another run,’” Boudreau said. “We were going to score a run. We haven’t had a game we we’ve gotten shut out, so I just kept that in my head like ‘we’re going to score a run, we’re going to score a run.’”
Boudreau tweaked a pre-existing back injury in the fourth inning and it looked like her day was done. After dealing with the pain in the circle and taking a few warmup pitches, only got better. Boudreau retired the last eight hitters she faced, four by strikeout.
“I have big confidence in her,” Fleury said. “I’ve been playing with her since sixth grade. I have such good confidence in her and I know she’s going to help us out a lot.”
Getting dropped to the losers’ bracket would have been detrimental to Johnston’s D-II title hopes. Despite high seeds and having Boudreau in the circle, the Panthers haven’t reached the winners’ bracket final, with one first-round loss and two in the semifinal round.
“I have so much more confidence now,” Boudreau said. “I’m so much more at ease now that we got this win.”
The next round won’t be easier. On Friday Johnston will welcome Portsmouth back to Wood Lake Park. The teams played one another on May 12, where the Panthers saw a 6-1 lead disappear in the seventh before pulling out the 6-5 win.
“We have to go our hardest,” Fleury said. “We can’t think too lightly of the team and have to try our best and have confidence in each other.”
“Portsmouth is the most amazing team,” Boudreau said. “I think that they’re the best – I think we’r eht best, obviously, it’s my team – but I think Portsmouth is the second best over Lincoln.
“I don’t care how many games [Lincoln has] won, Portsmouth is the team I want to beat.”
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Score from Ponaganset at Johnston playoff softball on Tuesday May 26