The Martha’s Vineyard Women’s Softball League season came down to one game after all. The Snaps and Honeys, the top two teams in the regular season, were the last teams standing at the end of the double-elimination playoff tournament.
The teams met Tuesday night at Veterans Park. The top-seeded Snaps were unbeaten in the playoffs and needed one more win to wrap up the second championship in team history. The defending champion Honeys, with one loss in the tourney, needed to beat the Snaps twice to win a fifth title in nine years.
With two losses to the Snaps during the regular season, such an outcome seemed unlikely. That was until the Honeys exacted some sweet revenge, blistering the tentative and error-prone Snaps, 18-3, to force a decisive final game Wednesday night, August 28, (visit www.mvtimes.com to see the championship result).
Most games with such a lopsided scoreline are a case of one team doing most everything right and the other not doing much right at all. That was the case Tuesday night.
The Snaps started well enough. They put down the Honeys 1-2-3 to start the game and took a 1-0 lead after Crystal Roy singled in Summer Clements.
After a scoreless second, the Honeys took a 3-1 in the third. Amy Maciel, Darcie Lee Hanaway, and Margaret Mirko all had hits. Kaylea Moore hit an RBI grounder in the bottom of the third to get the Snaps within one, but it was all downhill from there for Team Green.
Hailee McCarthy hit an RBI double in the fourth to make it 4-2. Nicole Gazaille and Martha Scheffer added RBIs for a 6-2 lead. The Honeys ended the fifth up 8-2 after two more runs came in following a high throw to the plate.
The Honeys added a wealth of insurance with a 10-run seventh. Eight runs came with two outs.
