Godin blasts King Philip Softball into Division 1 South Semifinals

It was a tale of two pitchers, with the winner getting the right to take on Silver
Lake in the Division 1 South Semifinals. King Philip’s Meg Rico, who was coming
off a one hit gem against Taunton during a rare break in the wet weather, was facing
off against Somerset-Berkley’s Meaghan Kay at the Plainville Athletic League field.

Rico looked in full control on this sunny afternoon that would eventually turn to downpours as she was sending the Raider bats back to the dugout via the strikeout, while her Somerset counterpart was keeping the Warriors off the scoreboard in a quiet fashion in the 2-0 win.

The Warriors will play Silver Lake in the game of the semifinals Saturday at 11 a.m. North Attleboro will play Bridgewater-Raynham in the other semifinal at 1 p.m.

As Rico mowed down 17 batters, Kay was scattering seven hits, no more than two in any one inning.

As the dark skies threatened the scoreless contest KP’s Olivia Godin provided the
heroics in the bottom of the sixth inning. With two outs and Hailey Mullen standing on second base, the KP catcher unloaded a pitch that sailed over the right-center field fence giving the Warriors a 2-0 lead.

Three outs later as the rain was falling Rico fanned her 17th batter to end the game and
send the Warriors to Taunton in the semifinals.

“That’s what we’ve come to expect from her (Godin). She’s not affected by the pressure,
every bat is the same to her,” King Philip coach Jim Leonard said. “I thought that Hailey did a great job of getting on, we moved her over and then it’s just a matter of Olivia getting a real good swing on the ball.”

At the first crack of the bat it didn’t look as though Godin got it all, but somehow
it sailed over the fence to give the Warriors the victory.

“The balls all day were dying and I didn’t think the outfielder was going to get a
real good play on it,” the coach said. “It was just one of those plays, it carried over enough and that’s a tribute to Olivia’s strength.” 

Just like her coach, Godin didn’t think the ball was leaving the park either.

“Off the bat I knew I was going for at least a triple, I was hauling. Honestly
everything about the homerun was a blur, all I remember was the bases because I
remembered to touch,” Godin said. “I knew that we’d come through and our bats
would come alive. I believe in this team a lot.”

King Philip looked as though they were going to strike first in the third inning following back-to-back singles off the bats of Amy Nolan and Mullen leaving runners at first and third with no outs. Luckily for the visitors, they were able to dodge a bullet and escape the inning unscathed.

With Rico at the plate, Kay unleashed a wild pitch that took a hard bounce off the
backstop and Nolan was thrown out at the plate trying to advance from third.
Mullen motored her way around to third on the out. Moments later Rico popped up
to Pacheco at first, who turned and gunned down Mullen.

“Ourbase runners are trained to trust their instincts and unfortunately she (Nolan)
got a little bit of a late jump. It was a good slide, but it was just one of those things,” Leonard said. “I trust our players enough to make those decisions. I liked our chances at that time, especially the way they were defending against small ball. I thought that
we could get it done.”

With two outs in the top of the seventh and only one out away from the win, the
rains began to fall. Somerset’s Alley Gouveia singled off Rico and moved up to
second on a wild pitch before the KP ace ended the game. Paige Gouveia had the
only other hit off Rico back in the fourth inning, breaking up the no-hitter at
the time.

Outside of Godin’s game winning homerun, King Philip was paced by Mullen (2-3 with a
run scored), Renee Poirier (2-2 with two singles) and singles off the bats of
Rico, Meg Carnase and Nolan.

The Warriors now await the word from the MIAA as
to when they will square off against Silver Lake for the right to compete for
the championship.