BETHEL — Lisbon pitcher Alyssa Hall has been in many jams before in her high school career.
And there was nothing new that Hall couldn’t handle in Saturday’s Class C south semifinal softball game.
Hall was her usual steadfast self and kept it all in perspective as the No. 6 Lisbon Greyhounds (12-6) showed the No. 2 Telstar Rebels the door with an 8-4 victory.
Lisbon took advantage of Telstar’s five errors and used some timely hitting to shelve the stubborn Rebels, who had trouble stringing hits together to bring in more runs in the last four innings.
But it was Hall’s poise inside the circle that helped keep the Greyhounds on the right path.
“You just kinda have to remember that it’s a game and you are here to have fun,” Hall, who had only one walk, said. “Just block everything else out and do what you have to do.
“I have been doing this for a long time and I have kinda learned my own mentality on how to get through all these jams. I do what I do and just don’t think about it.”
While Hall was working her turf in the circle, Lisbon went to work on Telstar pitcher Olivia York and the Rebels’ defense in the third and fifth innings.
In the third inning, Lisbon catcher Jasmin Le got on with an error, Ali Sult singled and Bree Staples followed with an RBI single to bring home Le. Suit and Staples brought two runs across on Hall’s two-run single to make 5-4 in Lisbon’s favor.
Le began the second three-run uprising in the fifth inning with her single. Sult doubled and moved Le over third, and Le scored when she got around the Telstar catcher on an RBI single by Staples. Sult and Staples came home on Kate Philbrick’s two-run single, giving the Greyhounds an 8-4 lead.
“Just one through nine hitting the ball (helped),” Lisbon coach Terri Tlumac said. “My pitcher pitching a great game, walking one girl.
“We were just on today, defensively. We didn’t let any errors or any hits get us down. We moved forward.
“We had played them earlier in the season and lost in the bottom of the seventh, so we came in pretty confident that we could run with them. I think the kids did their job.”
Telstar got on the scoreboard first inning when shortstop Becca Howard, who tripled in the third inning, and Tehya Johnson scored thanks to an error and an RBI single by Hayley Peterson. The Rebels led 2-0.
In the third inning, Telstar’s Lisa Gammon scored after getting on with a walk. She scored on catcher Blair Stevens’ RBI single.
The Rebels got their final run in the third inning when Howard scored again on Johnson’s one-run single.
“Oh, it wasn’t our day,” Telstar coach Jim Lunney said. “Give credit to them. We knew this. They were going to put the ball in play, but we probably gave them five unearned runs. Way too many errors.
“Then we didn’t hit the ball. We swung at way too many high pitches. They outplayed us. They should have won the game and they did win the game.”
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