Suffolk News-Herald

Living up to their fiery name, the Suffolk Youth Athletic Association Fireballs burned through the second day of their season-ending 9-10 tournament Saturday at the Windsor Athletic Fields, winning two games by a combined 36-8. After opening the day with a 14-4 defeat of the SYAA Dolphins, the Suffolk girls in red routed Holland, 22-4 on the strength of a 12-run sixth inning. The win gave the team, which compiled a perfect 13-0 regular season, a berth in the tournament title game, to be held at 6 p.m. Monday.

Jennifer Crofton, Kiera Ricks, Katie Owens, and Brittany Ashby scored two each in the first game, and Kiera scored in the top of the first inning of the second one.

Katie Brophy tied the score for Holland, but Haley Cavenas walked to start the second, and Ashby blooped a triple to right to score her. She later stole home to go ahead 3-2.

Sue Parker drove in Holland second run in the second, and Kiera and Nicolette Cuvas hit the plate for SYAA in the third. That’s when Ashby came in to pitch and the Fireballs stole all the momentum.

She struck out the side, and Brittany Krepp singled to start the fourth. Ginny Griffin drove her home, and scored when Haley grounded out. Ashby then stole home, and the lead was 8-2.

Holland, which defeated Smithfield 18-8 earlier in the day, didn’t give up, as Megan Blythe singled home Skylar Goodman and Morgan Helloak to cut the lead in half. But Katie and Nicolette neutralized the runs in the fifth, and Ashby again struck out the side in the bottom of the inning.

Krepp was the first to score in the big inning, stealing home. Ginny followed suit, and Ashby drove in Haley to extend the lead to 13-4. Lorrie Jett and Ashley Cox loaded the bases, and Ashby and Lorrie scored on an error. Ashley stole home, and Jennifer Asbell and Katie walked. Both eventually scored, as did Nicolette, Anne Higinbotham, Kiera, Crofton and, for the second time, Krepp.

As icing on the cake, Ashby struck out the side once again, ending with 11 strikeouts in four innings.

&uot;We’d already played on game, so we were tired at first,&uot; Ginny said. &uot;We had to get fired up again. We knew we’d have to get some hits and get some outs.&uot;