GUILDERLAND — The Guilderland softball team was led by a sophomore to give Coach Jen Maxwell her first win over Colonie.

Jen McCutcheon pitched a one-hitter to shut out the Garnet Raiders, 2-0, on Wednesday afternoon at Guilderland High School.
"Jen is doing an outstanding job pitching," Maxwell said. "She was on the junior varsity for the past two years and pitched every game. She’s shown me what an outstanding pitcher she is."

McCutcheon pitched so well that the Lady Dutch only needed two runs to win the game. Both runs came in the fifth.

Junior Tricia Loux led off the inning with a single and advanced to second. Then Katrina Ernest bunted and reached first safely after a bad throw by the Colonie third baseman. Michelle Girwec’s bunt was also mishandled and the bases were loaded with no outs.

Lauren Napoli then singled to drive in Loux for the first run of the game. Marissa Valletta then grounded the ball to the shortstop who threw to home plate to force out Ernest. Next, on a wild pitch, Giwerc got caught trying to steal home for the second out of the inning.

But Nancy DeLeon added to the lead with a single that drove in Napoli, who had advanced to third on the wild pitch.
"Good contact"
"Today we made good contact with the ball," Maxwell said. "We want to put the ball in play and let them make mistakes. You can’t win the game if you’re not on base."

The Lady Dutch put the ball in play all day but couldn’t get anything to drop in for a hit. They were also a victim of bad luck in the third inning.

Ernest led off the frame with a walk but was caught in between bases when Giwerc hit a ball that was dropped by the second baseman. The Colonie player was able to throw to second to force out Ernest who was heading back to first base because she thought the ball had been caught.

The same thing happened to Giwerc as Napoli hit a ball that was dropped by the Colonie shortstop and Giwerc was retreating to first base.

Colonie’s best chance to score came in the fifth inning.

With one out and runners on second and third base, Ernest threw a ball to third base to try and pick off the runner, but the ball was overthrown. Napoli made a heads-up play and threw a perfect strike back to Ernest who took the brunt of a collision but held onto the ball and tagged out the Colonie runner. McCutcheon struck out the batter on the next pitch and the inning came to a quick end.
"I called up Lauren Napoli from j.v.," Maxwell said. "And she makes a great throw to get the girl out. Katrina gets the ball and blocks the plate. She took a pretty good hit. This is a very positive team and we can go far."

McCutcheon finished the contest with 13 strikeouts.
"Jen has definitely gotten better every year," Maxwell said. "She is only in 10th grade. She has great pitches and she can also field any ball hit to her. When Ashley [Wyland] pitched the other day, Jen played third."

Tie-breaker

The win was the second in a row over a Suburban Council foe this week. The Lady Dutch beat Columbia, 4-3, in 10 innings
"We had a big win on Monday," Maxwell said. "It went 10 innings, and went to the international tie breaker. I was fortunate that our lead-off hitter started on second base. So I had my two through four hitters come up."

Under the international tie-breaker rules, a runner begins the inning on second base. Valletta started on second in the 10th and scored when Sarah Heller hit a single to left field to win the game.

The wins evened the Dutch’s Suburban Council record to 2-2. Guilderland dropped a 2-1 decision to Schenectady on Tuesday and is now 3-3 overall.
"Last year, our league record was weak in the beginning of the season," Maxwell said. "We tried to come back and get into sectionals. It’s nice to get some league wins in the early part. We want to get to sectionals. This team could get there."

Guilderland plays Shaker today (Thursday); Catholic Central High School on Friday; and Saratoga on Monday.
"We have a bunch of girls that are dedicated to softball," Maxwell said. "We are a very positive team. We want to go far."