Here's how Ponaganset softball found its groove to beat Lincoln-North Providence Thursday

NORTH PROVIDENCE — Chloe Barber supplied the final extra-base hit herself, the end of a late-afternoon awakening for Ponaganset’s offense Thursday.

The Chieftains trailed through three innings and didn’t have much working before catching fire at Notte Park. It was typical of their performance in the Division II softball standings to date, as one of the league’s two unbeatens remained that way.

Lincoln-North Providence saw its early lead snuffed out. Ponaganset plated the final eight runs and Barber handled the rest in the circle to rack up a 9-4 victory.

Barber’s two-run double to deep left-center capped a five-run rally in the bottom of the sixth inning. The Chieftains snapped a 4-4 tie by batting around the order, and that came after three runs to wipe out a 4-1 deficit in the bottom of the fourth. Maia Salvo came just a double short of the cycle and a pair of singles apiece from Cece Orlando and Kyla Angell helped complete the attack.

“Just wait for your pitch,” Barber said. “We’re getting high, we’re getting low – just wait for yours.”

Alayna Medina singled through the right side to put Ponaganset in front to stay in the sixth. Ava DiFiore’s single to right and Barber’s liner to the gap added some insurance the right-hander ultimately didn’t need. The Barry University commit worked a 1-2-3 top of the seventh, closing a stretch where Barber allowed just one runner to reach scoring position over her last five frames.

“I knew we were going to come back,” Salvo said. “I was not worried. Everyone just has to stay up.”

The Wildcats had won three straight coming in and were thinking upset early. They took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first and wasted no time adding on in the second. Makenna Heon grounded an RBI double to the corner in left and Lauren Cipriano smacked a two-run homer to deep right-center, staking LNP to a three-run cushion.

“I think we all just kind of realized we needed to calm down,” Barber said. “This week has been a little bit of a mess – we've had games changed, we’ve had games canceled. We just weren’t there.”

The Chieftains began to restore order in the bottom of the fourth. Salvo followed an RBI triple to right in the first with a solo homer in the same direction, a towering drive to the pull side from the Marist commit. Cora Miller dropped a two-run triple down the line in right and Ponaganset was suddenly even.

“Those girls were hitting,” Salvo said. “The first couple innings were so back and forth.”

The Wildcats (6-4) missed a chance to take the lead in the top of the fifth thanks to some nice defensive execution by the Chieftains (9-0) and a disputed call on the bases. LNP attempted a double steal with runners at the corners, Salvo took a direct throw from Angell while slipping in from her spot at second base and flipped to Medina at the bag. The shortstop tagged out the runner coming from first and fired to the plate, a bang-bang play that resulted in the inning’s final out.

“It’s very hard to do,” Salvo said. “But that was perfect. That was spot on.”

Ponaganset was technically the home team despite playing off campus in this one – the Chieftains won’t have that luxury next time. They play three road games in four days before meetings with the Bulldogs and Johnston to close the regular season. This stretch should be the perfect gauge for what sort of damage Ponaganset should expect to do in the upcoming playoffs.

“We just take it day by day,” Barber said. “We realize what we need to work on and do that at practice. We focus on what we need to do for games.”

Lincoln-North Providence 130 000 0 – 4 7 1

Ponaganset 100 305 x – 9 12 0

Anna Danis and Makenna Heon. Chloe Barber and Kyla Angell. HR – Lauren Cipriano (LNP); Maia Salvo (P).

bkoch@providencejournal.com

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This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Ponaganset softball beats Lincoln-North Providence, 9-4