Orange Softball Team Wins Yet Another One

The Orange 11-12 year old girls All Star Little League softball team completed its five game sweep of the District 4 pool play by blanking Milford 10-0 Wednesday night at Stankye Field. Katie Koshes led the 5-0 winners with her four inning one-hitter. She struck out seven Milford batters  and did not issue a free pass.

In addition Koshes (who won three of her team’s five games during the round robin tournament) banged out a triple and two singles, scored three runs, and drove in three runs.

Koshes led off the bottom of the first inning with a single, Cassidy Kirby bunted her on to second base and she scored on a Milford error. Sparked by Koshes’ two-run triple over the head of the Milford center fielder, Orange exploded for seven more runs in the second inning. Tori Gustafson led off with a base hit and stole second base. Kylie Stackpole followed suit to put two runners in scoring position.

After Gustafson scored on another Milford miscue, Koshes unloaded her three base bomb to give the All Stars a 4-0 lead. After Teresa Marchitto was hit by a pitch and swiped a base, Martha Zhang drove in both teammates with her two-run single. Zhang and Allie Gusmano added the final two runs as they came home on passed balls.

In the third inning, Erin Mullins reached base on a Milford error and later came in to score on Kirby’s RBI single to make it 9-0.  The final Orange tally, which ended the game due to the Mercy Rule, was a result of Kara Kachmar’s single, an error by the Milford pitcher, and Koshes’ run-scoring, game-ending base hit.

“The girls really played well.” Coach Frank Koshes said. “Our bats were alive. We hit the ball hard and got eight hits. In addition, Milford made several errors, which we are able to capitalize on. Katie pitched great and our defense was flawless. I keep telling the girls that defense wins games.”

Orange now advances to the District 4 Finals, a best two-games-out-of-three series with 4-1 North Branford, starting on Friday night at 5:30 p.m. The site of the game has been changed to Totoket Field in North Branford. The same two teams will meet again 5:30 p.m. Saturday night at Stankye Field.