In a match that pitted two tired and depleted against on another, the Newton South girls tennis squeezed out a 3-2 Dual County League win over Boston Latin at the Sportsmen's Club in Dorchester yesterday afternoon.
Both teams were playing for the fifth consecutive day and each had key players out with illness, injury or prior engagement. The Lions played without senior co-captain Stacey Eisenberg, off to her sister's college graduation, and second singles player Mika Braginsky, who was weak from congestion caused by a cold. Meanwhile, Latin's third singles player, Monica Goncalves, sat out the match with a sore shoulder before defaulting the second doubles, which stood at 3-3 in the first set, because of ailments.
Despite the shortage of personnel, South prevailed to run its record to 6-5 (6-5 DCL).
Junior Jilli Schwartz finished first, dominating from start to finish for a 6-0, 6-0 triumph over Alicia Williams at third singles. Classmate Lauren Hollender then upended Megan Mulrooney at first singles before the first doubles team of Marissa Mamon and Katherine Man retired after splitting the first two sets with Latin's Alex Dorgan and Bethany Nyugen since the match had already been decided.
The Lions need two more victories to qualify for the Division 1 North sectional and will travel to Concord-Carlisle today at 3:30.
Baseball
Trinity Catholic 17, NCC 3
With his team facing elimination with from tournament contention with another loss, junior Marc Leger turned in a stellar performance on the mound to highlight a 17-3 blowout win over visiting Catholic Central League rival North Cambridge Catholic yesterday at Cabot Park.
Leger pitched a complete game, allowing only two runs on seven hits, while striking out seven to improve to 2-2 on the season. Leger also went 2-for-3 at the plate with 3 RBIs and two runs scored.
Junior Bobby Greenwood went 2-for-3 with five RBIs and three runs scored, while senior captain Steve Burckardt added two hits, two RBIs and two runs scored. Fellow senior captain Mike Rizzo scored four times, reaching on a single and three hit-by-pitches.
Now 5-9 (5-7 CCL), the Falcons need to win their remaining four games, beginning tomorrow at Maimonides (3:30 p.m.), to make the state tourney. Trinity will be looking for revenge as well as Maimonides won the first meeting between the two teams.
``It's a huge game for us,'' said Trinity coach Greg Genualdo. ``We did what we had to do (yesterday) and we need to keep taking care of business. (Tomorrow's) a one-game season because we can't do anything to help our team except for win (tomorrow).''
