Mansfield Softball Crushes Stoughton 17-2

The Mansfield Hornets beat the Stoughton Black Knights in the fifth inning after the slaughter rule was invoked, ending the game at 17-2.

The game was not extremely lopsided until the fourth inning. Brianna Chuisano started off Mansfield's scoring in the first inning when Tricia Hansen brought her in from third on a sacrificial fly.

Mansfield struck again in the third; when Hansen hit a triple to left field  to bring in Chuisano again. Erin  Glavin hit a single to bring in Hansen, and Jamie Mall hit a single to bring the score to 4-0.

Mansfield brought in three more runs in the fourth, and then was answered by Stoughton. Colleen Flaherty started out the inning with a lead-off bunt, and Jordan Angelos hit her in with a double for Stoughton's first run of the game. Pitcher Jessica Olans then got on base with a single, followed by Molly Zuk.

Kelsey Moriarty hit a single to being in Olans, but Mansfield pitcher Hansen killed the Knights' momentum with two strike outs and a pick off on first.

Then Mansfield found their momentum. They seemed unstoppable, as each player had two hitting oppertunities. All in all, they scored ten runs during the inning. Stoughton changed pitchers from Olans to Emily Cramer, in the middle of the rally, but it did little to slow the Hornets down.

"The bats were definitely here," said Hornets Head Coach Jinneane Sperrazza. "I think we had ten runs and ten hits that inning."

Stoughton had one more at bat before the game was called on the slaughter rule, but Hansen struck out all three batters consecutively.

"All I know is that collectively we all had our worst day on the same day and you can't do that against a very good team like Mansfield," said Knights Head Coach. "Hopefully we can put this one behind us and enter the tournament strong, because down the stretch this team has played extremely well in the last third of the season. This game was very unusual."