New Bedford beats Dartmouth in the 11th to win a share of the Southeast Conference title

DARTMOUTH — Amelia Davis was 0-for-4 when she stepped to the plate in the top of the 11th inning with two runners on base in a scoreless tie with rival Dartmouth.

The New Bedford High sophomore catcher calmly sent a deep shot to center field, driving in a pair of runs to lift the Whalers past Dartmouth 2-0 in a pitchers' duel.

“I had those two other shots — one to center and one to left,” said Davis of two fly balls. “I said, ‘I just need to put it in play and come up big for my teammates’ because I know they were all working really hard and I had to contribute something.”

New Bedford head coach Harry Lowe had all the confidence in Davis.

“Offensively, when we needed it, we got it,” he said. “Amelia had hit two really good balls the previous two times. I told her, ‘Listen, think about shooting the middle.’ She went right up the middle with that nice base hit. That was big.”

The win for New Bedford secured a share of the Southeast Conference title with Bridgewater-Raynham.

“It’s big, especially for the seniors,” said Lowe. “We haven’t won it before. I’m happy for them because they put a lot of time and energy into the program. For them to get a reward like that is great.”

New Bedford senior Sydnee Ramos said her team was motivated to not only beat Dartmouth, but share the crown.

“That lit a fire under us,” she said. “We’ve been leading up to this game all week. We really wanted to win this game since last time they came to our place, they put us out. It felt really nice afterward.”

Ramos got the ball rolling for New Bedford in the 11th inning when she dove into first base to beat out the throw on a single. Hayleigh Chenard followed up with another single, setting the stage for Davis.

“It was so huge,” said New Bedford senior pitcher Lilly Gray of Davis’ hit. “I knew as soon as Amelia got up, she was going to be the clutch person. Having her back there (catching) was extremely helpful. It wasn’t just her hitting that made a big impact, but catching also.”

Up 2-0, Gray and the Whalers shut the door on any chance of a Dartmouth comeback in the bottom of the 11th inning as she recorded back-to-back strikeouts and induced a groundout to seal the victory.

“She’s always a tough pitcher,” said Dartmouth head coach Beth Arguin. “She keeps batters off balance. When her riser is working, it’s working. She’s a good pitcher.”

Gray struck out 17 while allowing five hits with one hit batsman over 11 innings.

“I’m thinking about throwing my best pitches every single time,” Gray said of her thoughts late in the extra-inning affair. “I know I have a defense behind so if they hit, I know they can get it. I’m looking for a pitch that can get them a popup or a grounder that’s easy for my defense to get.”

New Bedford’s defense turned in one of its best performances of the year.

On an attempted bunt by Dartmouth’s Sarah Cabral, third baseman Jenna Nogueira fielded the ball and threw to first for the out and the Whalers were able to turn the double play as left fielder Abby Perry tagged out a runner on the basepaths to end the seventh inning.

“We played great defense today,” said Lowe, noting that Ava Kaplan also made some great plays at second base. “It was a lot of big plays and a team effort.”

Gray added, “We wanted it and I’m happy we got it. We worked hard for it. It took an entire team effort. It wasn’t just one person out there.”

Gray had extra motivation after pitching in New Bedford’s 7-1 loss to Dartmouth on May 5.

“It was the game after I hurt my finger so it was nice to come back and show them my best stuff,” she said.

With just one regular season game left, Lowe is hoping the Whalers can carry some of the momentum from Wednesday’s contest into the tournament.

“We’ve been talking for about two weeks now that this is the time of the year you want to play your best,” he said. “I told them this is the type of game we’re going to get in the state tournament so this is good for us to play.”

HOW IT HAPPENED

The teams combined for just five hits through seven innings.

Ramos reached on a grounder past the shortstop for New Bedford’s lone hit against Dartmouth pitcher Megan Arruda early on. Dartmouth had four of its five hits in the first seven innings as Kalisa Pomfret reached twice by beating out throws to first and Kathryn Lancaster and Lily Gioiosa each had a single.

The Whalers eventually figured things out at the plate, slugging eight of their nine hits in extra innings. They had a runner in scoring position in the eighth and 10th innings.

“Through most of the game, we really couldn't hit this girl,” said Ramos of Arruda. “We didn’t know what she was throwing. We knew where she was throwing, but we couldn’t put a bat on the ball and if we did, it went straight to somebody and they’d make some crazy catch.”

Lowe added, “I feel badly for their pitcher. She had a heck of a game. She kept us off-balance all day. That’s the second time she pitched against us and did that to us.”

Arruda struck out nine while allowing two runs off nine hits with one walk over 11 innings.

“She really worked hard,” Arguin said. “She was in there the whole time and she did her job. They just got a couple of crucial hits and we made a couple of mistakes.”

WHAT IT MEANS: With the win, the Whalers (13-6) captured a share of the SEC title with Bridgewater-Raynham with identical 6-2 conference records. New Bedford visits Apponequet on Friday in its regular season finale. … The loss was the second straight for Dartmouth (8-10, 4-4 SEC), which needs to win its final two games to automatically qualify for the playoffs.

ARGUIN: “I told them today if they continue to play this way, they’ll be OK. We played much better than we have in the last few games so I feel like this was in a positive direction. Still not in our favor, but I feel like they did better. I think they played hard today. Not much else I can ask of them.”

NEW BEDFORD STATS: Ramos went 2-for-5 with a run scored while Annabelle Huston and Lily Gonet were 2-for-5. Chenard (run scored) and Davis were both 1-for-5. Nogueira had the Whalers’ other hit.

DARTMOUTH STATS: Pomfret and Gioiosa both went 2-for-4 while Lancaster was 1-for-5.

New Bedford;000;000;000;02—2

Dartmouth;000;000;000;00—0

WP: Lilly Gray; LP: Megan Arruda

This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: New Bedford softball beats Dartmouth in 11th to win share of SEC