Thorne lifts top-seed Essex into D-I final

ESSEX — Nature’s lightning forced suspension of the Essex-Colchester Division I high school softball Tuesday. Makenna Thorne’s thunderous bolt brought the game to a dramatic conclusion Wednesday.

Thorne launched a one-out, two-run home run over the right field fence in the last of the eighth inning, keeping the Hornets’ perfect season alive with an 8-6 come-from-behind victory over the Lakers.

Top-seeded Essex (19-0) will play Mount Anthony in Poultney for the state championship while the Lakers finished the season at 15-4. The time for the title game is still to be determined.

The Hornets scored three times in the bottom of the sixth inning Tuesday to tie the game at 5. After Colchester’s Alli Sheets opened the top of the seventh with a single, the game was delayed and eventually suspended due to lightning in the area.

The teams resumed play at that point Wednesday and Colchester regained the lead, 6-5, only to have the Hornets once more scratch from behind to push the game into the eighth.

After Colchester stranded a runner on third in the top of the eighth, Jamie Morin hammered a one-out triple to right center for Essex, giving way to pinch-runner Regan Day. Thorne then ripped her second home run of the game — and season — over the right field fence.

“Going up there, I was thinking get on base, get a base hit,” Thorne said. “When I saw it gone, I was like, all right, we only scored one, and then I saw it go over the fence and it was like, oh, my gosh, we did it.”

Of the necessity to return Wednesday, Thorne said, “A lot of us were thinking about it all night. It was always on our minds but we were kind of thinking through it, all right, this is what we need to happen. We need people on base, we need to score and we need to get it done quick and we need to hold them.

“This whole season we’ve played like that, we’ll get down by one and we’ll come back, so I think we just kept that mentality where we have our ups and do what we can to get back,” said Thorne, who said her strategy in part was to lay off Sheets’ rise ball.

Of Thorne, who lost her starting position early due to injury and had to fight to regain her role, Essex coach Ashley Stebbins said, “It was not looking good for her getting back into the lineup but when she did, she was doing some little things, bunting, some base hits, found her spot and makes a huge, huge impact on this game. Never complained; never got down on herself, a good team player who stuck with it.”

Tuesday, Colchester opened a 3-0 lead in the fourth inning, Sarah Knickerbocker responding with the first of three Essex homers, a solo shot in the bottom of the fourth. The Lakers added two in the fifth and led 5-2 going to the bottom of the sixth.

At that point, Riley Magoon relieved Colchester starter Sheets and gave up three runs on three hits, capped by Thorne’s game-tying two-run homer.

When play resumed Wednesday with Sheets on first, Essex pitcher Alli Rutz’s first pitch hit Greetje Scheller. Rutz then fielded Taylor Losier’s comebacker but overthrew third on the force attempt, letting Sheets score the lead run. Danielle Whitham then lifted what appeared to be a sacrifice fly to center but the runner on third was called out on appeal for leaving prior to the catch, a critical out for which Stebbins credited assistant coach Eric Rutz.

“He’s a really, really detail oriented kind of guy and he had his eyes on the right spot, making sure that girl tagged up and stayed on base until the catch was made. I’m pretty sure he’s the only one on the bench who saw it,” said Stebbins, who said Rutz then instructed his daughter to make the appeal to third for the out, costing Colchester a vital run.

Rutz atoned for her error in the bottom of the seventh, driving in the tying run with a sacrifice fly

After Tuesday’s suspended play, Stebbins said, “We really focused the last part of the season on winning each inning. We said in the playoffs we need to win every inning. Certainly (Tuesday) we didn’t really win any innings until the sixth.

“Then we got the tie and we got the rain delay and I simply sent them all an email today that simply said three words: Win the innings,” Stebbins said. “That was our mentality right from the beginning of the game. We didn’t win the first inning (Wednesday); we had to tie it up but the second inning, we won the inning, we won the game.”

Of Rutz, who allowed 10 hits, struck out seven, walked none and hit two, Stebbins said, “Ali battled. I mean, she battled and it’s so amazing to see her battle given the way semifinals have been the past couple of years. She could have been down early thinking about the past years, the games they haven’t won, but she stayed right in there.”

“You never know what to expect after a rain delay,” Colchester coach Courtney Boetsma said. “It can take you a little while to get back in the groove; it can take you nothing all. We had hit by pitches, we had home runs, we had errors; we had everything involved in two innings. Even those two innings felt like another full seven emotionally speaking.

“I tip my cap to my girls and to them to coming out and competing and doing the best we can.”

Contact Free Press correspondent Ted Ryan at TedRyanVT@aol.com and follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/TedRyanVT