Old Lyme sophomore Bucior homers twice in the fifth to lift Wildcats to victory
Old Saybrook — One of the great things about sports is that the unwritten script allows for sentences like the following to unfold into fact, not fiction: She made her first start of the season, back from a broken wrist from a snowboarding accident and hit two home runs.
(And it actually happened Friday.)
Jamie Bucior, a sophomore who wondered even recently whether playing this season was worth it, returned to the Old Lyme High School lineup Friday and sent two softballs deep into the woods. She helped the Wildcats sweep the season series in the Battle of the Baldwin Bridge with a 15-3 win over Old Saybrook.
“Jamie had a really good inning,” Old Lyme coach Tim Gavin said with a wry smile, fully understanding the depth of his understatement.
Bucior’s first blast came with Old Lyme (6-4) clinging to a 4-3 lead in the fifth. It gave the Wildcats a 5-3 lead and sent a few parents scurrying about in the woods beyond the left field fence looking for the souvenir.
Homer No. 2 came later in the fifth, a three-run shot that capped an eight-run rally.
“This was nothing that I was expecting,” Bucior said. “I even thought the second one was going foul.”
Not bad for someone whose winter nearly imperiled her spring.
“I’m a skier,” Bucior said. “I tried snowboarding for the first time and fractured my wrist. Never gonna do that again. Toward the end of my recovery, I overworked myself a little. I thought I’d be out two or three more weeks and started to wonder if there was a point in me coming back. But when they cleared me it was amazing.”
Freshman Emma Bayor also homered for the Wildcats, while winning pitcher Victoria Gage allowed one baserunner past the fourth inning. Gage also helped herself with run-scoring hits in the second and fourth. Catcher Paige Kolesnik hit a two-run double during the fifth-inning rally as well.
“It was like two teams for us,” Gavin said. “Yesterday (Thursday) we hit the ball well (13 hits), but we made a lot of errors (in a loss at Cromwell). We were kind of asleep. But this was different.
“I think we’re a really good 6-4 team. We could and should be better than that, but overall, we’ve been pretty good since these seniors came in as freshmen. The program is headed in a great direction. We have competitive kids and some good young talent.”
m.dimauro@theday.com
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