MIDDLEBOROUGH — A huge Saturday non-league matinee broke out on Mother’s Day Weekend, and everything came out roses for Silver Lake.
Delaney Moquin tossed a one-hit shutout and struck out 10 as the Lakers blanked Middleborough 3-0 in a regular-season battle that had some playoff atmosphere between the two South Shore juggernauts.
Moquin struck out five of the first six batters she faced and only allowed a clean single to Mackenzie Conlon in the bottom of the third with two outs.
“I can’t say enough about Delaney. For a young team, we opened up some people’s eyes,” said Silver Lake head coach Tony Pina. “(Delaney) is a sophomore in name only, has the poise of an upperclassman, the focus of an upperclassman, and there were times she was down 2-0 or 3-0 in the count and got strikeouts or fly balls. She has exceeded expectations; she is only getting better.”
The Lakers (14-1, 12-0 in Patriot League play) finally got to Sachems starter Cassidy Machado with all three runs coming in the pivotal sixth inning.
Sam Waters led off with a single and promptly stole second base to put the pressure on the Middleborough defense in a scoreless tie and no outs. After a Madyson Bryan walk, Moquin helped her own cause with a one-out game-winning single to knock in Waters.
Nina O’Neil followed Moquin with a two-run double on a 3-and-2 pitch from Machado to the right-centerfield gap. O’Neil’s two-bagger chased Machado out of the game after 98 pitches and was all Silver Lake needed.
Eva Jenness came on in relief for Middleborough to keep things close and retired all five batters she faced with three coming via the strikeout.
The loss for Middleborough (12-2, 7-0 in South Shore League play) is its second loss in a row after dropping a 1-0 thriller to Greater New Bedford Vocational Tech, but Middleborough head coach Dan Sylvia knows these are the games he wants on the Sachems’ schedule.
“This is what we want, and this is what we need. We just came off a four-game schedule where we ran through it and we needed a good test, and this was a good test,” said Sylvia, who is in his fifth year at the helm for the Sachems. “When you face good quality varsity pitching and you face New Bedford Voke – you are going to get a quality opponent every single time you step on the field. This one – we had one poor inning, defensively we could have done a couple of different things, and I think we could have still been in the game.”
Silver Lake now owns a 10-game winning streak with its lone loss coming April 13 against Apponequet. In fact, the Lakers just ran somewhat of a gauntlet with three games back-to-back-to-back – all wins for Pina.
“For a team with two seniors, two juniors, seven sophomores and a freshman – to come here against a team like that – and just give themselves a chance all game and that’s what we talked about. Our highs don’t get too high, and our lows don’t get too low,” said Pina. “We have to be able to weather storms and at the end of the game – we will be there.”