Softball advances to semifinals

The Gloucester High School softball team has made it to the Division 2 North Semifinals after a win last night against Arlington Catholic. This is a feat that hasn’t been accomplished since 2006.

To get to the quarterfinals, Gloucester, the sixth seeded team, beat the eleventh seeded team, Wilmington, in the first round of the tournament with a score of 9-6 last Thursday.

Senior captain Sara Francis lead the team with three hits and was able to score two runs. Freshman Liz Schuster, junior captain Meagan Manning, and junior Samantha Cominelli also had hits that were able to advance runners home.

In the quarterfinals on Monday, Gloucester beat Arlington Catholic, the fourteenth seeded team, with a score of 2-1. Leading into the game, Arlington Catholic scored the first run of the game with an RBI single. In the third inning, junior catcher Samantha Cominelli got a triple which allowed the only two runs for Gloucester to score.

After the first two innings of the game, senior captain Karina Keenan pitched a no-hitter for the last five innings leaving Arlington Catholic with no other chances to score another run.

Last year, Gloucester beat North Reading in the first round of the tournament in extra innings. In the eighth inning, a hit by former senior Tess Benson allowed the Fisherman to score two runs to end the game with a score of 3-1. The team advanced to the quarterfinals where they lost to Burlington with a score of 4-0.

Gloucester will be playing their next game this Friday at Umass Lowell at 6:30. They will be playing the winner of tonight’s game, second seeded North Reading versus seventh seeded Swampscott.