GLOUCESTER— The Gloucester softball team has had trouble with consistency this season as it has a tendency to play up or down to its competition. During Friday's 9-8 loss to Peabody, Gloucester played up to its competition as the Tanners are a very strong team. Unfortunately for the Fishermen, on Tuesday they played down to their competition with a 5-3 loss to Revere at Nate Ross Field.
"We just made a few more mistakes than Revere today, that's the difference in close games like these," Gloucester head coach John Nicastro said. "We need to work on our consistency. Friday we played a strong Peabody team and we played a good game, today against a not as strong team we didn't have as strong of a performance. We need to cut down on the mental mistakes moving forward."
Trailing 5-0 in the fourth, Gloucester made things interesting plating three runs in the next two innings to put a scare into Revere.
Gloucester made it 5-1 in the fourth after a bases loaded walk plated Katie Munroe who reached on a single. The Fishermen kept the momentum going in the next inning when Clare Pleuler singled in Alex Costanzo to cut the lead to 5-2. Back-to-back walks to Sophie Black and Olivia Legendre, the latter's coming with the bases loaded, plated Munroe to cut the lead to 5-3 Patriots. Both Black and Legendre were down in the count but fouled off several tough pitches to earn the free pass.
It looked like Gloucester made it 5-4 later in the inning when Pleuler slid across home plate after a wild pitch, but she was called out on a very close play finishing off the rally and Gloucester's scoring for the afternoon.
"We needed just a couple more clutch hits," Nicastro said.
The Patriots got on the board in the second inning when Christina Stella came home on a wild pitch after reaching on a single. Revere would tack on two more runs in the third on a two run home run from Ally Ambrosino down the right field line. Michaela Maguire made it 5-0 Revere driving in what turned out to be the game winning runs on a two RBI single to left field scoring two runners who reached on walks.
While the Patriots were driving in runners on base, Gloucester struggled with its early opportunities leaving the bases loaded in the fourth after bringing home just a single run after filling the bases with nobody out. Gloucester also left runners on base in the second and sixth innings.
"We are at the midway point of the season and our consistency needs to get better in the second half," Nicastro said. "We did some good things today and we have done good things in every game, we just need to put together a complete seven inning game."
Pleuler and Munroe led the Fishermen offense with two hits each while Kerri Brewer had a strong game defensively snaring two hard hit line drives at third base. Nicastro also credited the play of Katie Russo, who pitched 3 1/3 innings of scoreless relief.
Revere 5 Gloucester 3
at Burnham's Field, Gloucester
R: Noel, CF, 5-0-1; DiCarlo, SS, 2-0-0; L. Gurska, C, 3-1-1; Maguire, 1B, 2-1-2; Gregorio, DH, 3-0-0; C. Gurska, 3B, 4-0-1; Ambrosino, 4-1-1; Stella, 2B, 4-1-2; Dibella, RF, 3-1-0. Totals 30-5-8.
G: Benson, C, 3-0-1; Munroe, RF, 3-2-2; Pleuler, SS, 4-0-2; Brewer, 3B, 4-0-0; Black, LF, 3-0-1; Legendre, CF, 2-0-0; White, DH, 1-0-0; Foley, 3-0-0; Caisse, 2B, 1-0-0; Costanzo, PH, 2-1-0. Totals 24-3-5.
RBI: R, Maguire 2, Ambrosino 2; G, Pleuler, Black, White.
WP: Laulette, LP, Verga.
