New London softball comes up short in South battle

NEW LONDON - The New London volleyball team came into Wednesday night's home game against West Burlington-Notre Dame one game out of first place with a chance to hand the Falcons their first loss and share the South Division title, but a tough Falcon team poured on the runs late to run away with an 11-2 victory.

The Tigers had all sorts of trouble against West Burlington starter Lauren Summers. The Tigers tallied just six hits all night off the freshman and were shut out in their first five at-bats.

Despite the slow start offensively, New London freshman Elly Manning looked good in the circle early and the defense behind her was solid enough to hold the Falcons to just two runs in the first five innings, one in the second and one in the third.

Manning escaped two-straight bases loaded, one out situations in the third and fourth innings. Layney Loyd turned a home-to-first double play to end the third and Manning got two clutch outs to keep the lead at 2-0 in the fourth.

When the top of the sixth rolled around, however, the wheels began to turn for the Falcon offense, and they turned hard. West Burlington exploded for nine runs in the sixth inning to put the Falcons in a commanding 11-0 lead.

New London needed at least two in the bottom half of the sixth, and they got two when Loyd sent a two-RBI single into the outfield. She was stranded on third, however, and it was still a nine-run lead for the road team.

Sophie Malott came in to pitch a scoreless seventh, and the Tigers had the bases loaded for Loyd with two outs, but West Burlington left fielder Abbey Bence made a diving catch in foul territory to end the threat.

Head coach Mark Chiri said he thought the team showed better fight than in Tuesday night's loss against Van Buren County, but that the Falcons just simply outplayed them.

'Last night against Van Buren, we looked like the Bad News Bears,” Chiri said. 'We didn't give anything away tonight. They earned it.”

It was the last regular season home game for the Tiger seniors; Loyd, Kara Krieger and Alexa Wenger, who Coach Chiri called the 'backbone” of his program. It was also the last game they will play without being at full strength, as all quarantines from the COVID-19 scare will be finished by their next game.

New London finished the regular season 6-6 overall and 4-2 in conference play, tied with Cardinal for second place. They'll host Holy Trinity in their first round regional game on Monday.