Hopkinton High School softball coach Dan Meserve has never seen a team hit like the Campbell Cougars did in Saturday’s Division II final at Memorial Field.
“Nope, up and down the lineup they’re good,” Meserve said.
How good? Good enough to bash 16 hits in an 18-6 Division III title game win, and also take advantage of five Hawks errors.
Hard to believe that two years ago, the final between these two teams was a pitcher’s duel. But this time, a lot of the Cougar sophomores in the lineup were seniors, including catcher Chloe Steiniger who had a double, two homers and seven RBIs to lead the way. The game ended in the sixth thanks to the 12-run mercy rule.
“We’ve got 10 seniors, we’ve been together since we were about eight years old,” said Steiniger, who played third base in 2019. “We came in headstrong and said we’re starting it from the ground up.”
And the hit total just kept going up, and up, and up vs. Hawks starter Megan Kimball-Rhines.
“Against a pitcher we prepared for, we knew what we were going to be doing, attacking her first pitches,” Cougars coach Eric Gibbons said, his team capping off a 17-0 season. “And it worked out. She’s a pitcher who works in front, you get behind and then she throws the junk. We never let it get there.”
They didn’t against much of anyone this year. The Cougars outscored the opposition 165-20 during the regular season, mainly against Division II competition thanks to the regional scheduling. Then they blasted teams 59-11 in the tournament.
“They’re just a great hitting lineup,” Meserve said. “We needed to shut the door down early and make them start doubting themselves. Hey, they’re a good club, they hit the ball hard. … And we just didn’t do it defensively. And the way they hit, exactly. Up and down the lineup, they’re good.”
After scratching out a run thanks to two Hopkinton errors in the first inning, the Cougars went to work in the second and third. A Hawks error brought in two, and then Steiniger doubled one in and Catherine Carignan hit a two-run homer that made it a 7-2 game.
After the six-spot in the second, Campbell went back to it with four in the third, the big blow a Steiniger three-run blast that increased the lead to 11-6.
Kimball-Rhines was done after giving up two more in the fourth on Riley Gamache’s RBI single and a Steiniger sac fly.
Hopkinton actually led 2-1 with two runs in the top of the second on an RBI double by Steph Elrick and a run-scoring infield hit by Kally Murdough.
And when the Cougars upped that lead to 7-2, the Hawks came right back in the top of the third with four more with an Elrick RBI double, a Brooke Carlson sac fly and pinch-hit RBI single by Abby Simpson. Elrick’s double forced the Cougars to lift pitcher Maddie Davis in favor of reliever Carignan, as Davis took a shot off the leg on an infield hit by Kyanna Landry before Elrick was due up.
But after giving up a sac fly and RBI hit, Carignan kept the Hawks off the scoreboard the rest of the way, allowing just two hits in the next three innings.
“At first I was a little nervous, but after that first half inning, I was definitely ready to get in my groove, and I felt really good after,” Carignan, one of two juniors on the team, said.
In the sixth, it was all over. Steiniger smacked a two-run homer off reliever Elrick, Morgan Bruner drove in a run with an infield single, and two more runs crossed the plate on wild pitches to end the game and give the Cougars their first title since 2015.
“Everyone was hitting well today,” Gibbons said. “Hitting’s contagious. Everyone’s either hitting, or they’re not hitting. That’s not the first time we’ve seen that.
“We worked hard. I’ve coached teams with daughters on it. But this is the best team I’ve ever coached.”
Hard to argue after Saturday’s performance, so much different than two years ago.
“We made the plays early the first inning against them in that game,” Meserve said. “They had two on with one out and got out of that jam and played them tight. That was our game plan today, but we just didn’t do it defensively.”