MADISON — This current Madison softball team might not boast the top-end talent of its 2016 or 2018 state championship squads, but the Bulldogs certainly have plenty of depth.
Every one of the nine spots in the Madison order Wednesday had at least one hit, one run scored or one run driven in, and the undefeated Bulldogs rolled to an 11-1 Mountain Valley Conference win over Hall-Dale at Campbell Field. Three pitchers cobbled together a no-hitter for Madison (13-0), and Emily Blauvelt and Jenny Dean went a combined 4 for 5 with two runs batted in out of the No. 7 and No. 8 spots in the batting order, respectively.
“I think it’s very important,” Dean said of the bottom third of the lineup’s contribution to the victory. “Nobody ever wants to be the last out, so that gives you a little more drive.”
With her three-hit day, Blauvelt went 5 for 6 in the two-game regular-season sweep of Hall-Dale with a double and three RBIs. Madison beat Hall-Dale in Farmingdale 8-1 in their season opener last month.
“I just try and do my part and be a team player,” Blauvelt said. “It’s confidence. It’s all mental. You just have to focus and drive the ball.”
Given Hall-Dale (11-3) entered the day sitting second behind Madison in the Class C South Heal point standings, it turned into the type of cakewalk for Madison nobody expected.
“The last few games were kind of lackadaisical during our pre-game, and after (Tuesday’s) practice that’s what we talked about,” said Madison coach Chris LeBlanc, whose Bulldogs have now won 33 in a row dating back to the 2017 Class C state championship game. “Shame on us as coaches, because we allowed it. We said today that we needed to get focused. … That’s kind of what we did out back there before the game.”
Hall-Dale pitcher Sarah Benner retired the side in order in the first, but there were signs of life from the Madison bats in the inning. Benner didn’t generate a single swing-and-miss, and all three outs came via hard-hit balls in the infield.
In the second, Madison made good on the promise of the opening frame. Ten Bulldogs batted in the six-run inning, piling up four hits to complement a walk and a costly two-run error in right field. Katie Worthen started the rally with a leadoff triple, and Emily Edgerly (3 for 4) poked an RBI single to left.
Dean drove in the lone run in the third for Madison, and Lauria LeBlanc (two RBIs) drove in a run in the fourth. Blauvelt’s run-scoring single to left capped a three-run sixth.
“We had that one bad inning, but that’s the way it goes,” Hall-Dale coach Steve Acedo said. “They weren’t necessarily crushing the ball, but they hit it where we weren’t. That’s all it takes.”
“We just don’t stop. You have to have grit,” Dean said. “You can’t be like, ‘Oh, we’re ahead by three, we’re going to win it.’ We have to keep pounding and pounding, because the game is not over. It’s not over until it’s over, obviously.”
All of that run support was more than enough for LeBlanc, Brooke McKenney and Landyn Landry to work with.
LeBlanc went four innings with seven strikeouts, and McKenney worked two scoreless frames before Landry pitched around two walks to begin the seventh before punctuating the win with a strikeout of Hall-Dale’s Alisa Bonenfant to finish things off.
Hall-Dale was no-hit for the first time this season.
“We were swinging for the fences instead of just trying to make contact,” Acedo said. “You’ve got to adjust. You can’t always swing away. … You can’t chase eight runs against a good team, and that’s what we were doing.”
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