WESTERLY\u00a0\u2014 Dacia Gingerella’s body sometimes takes a beating as the Westerly senior balances a two-sport spring season in softball and outdoor track and field.<\/p>\n
It literally took a beating Thursday when the Bulldog second baseman was hit by pitch twice in the same at bat in Bulldogs’ 2-1 loss to St. Raphael.<\/p>\n
St. Rafael power pitcher Izzy Sousa hit Gingerella in the arm only to see the homeplate umpire nullify her reaching base, stating she leaned into the pitch. Later in the at bat, she was drilled in the back and was awarded first base but not before flingling her bat down in disgust.<\/p>\n
“You don’t get hit in track unless you knock over a hurdle,” Gingerella said. “Getting hit twice got me and my team fired up.”<\/p>\n
Gingerella singled with two outs in the seventh and stole second base in a pressurized situation to put herself in scoring position. Sousa got the last out on a fly out, but Gingerella’s speed move showed her value to the 9-3 Bulldogs. She’s batting .450 and tied for the team lead in runs scored from her No. 2 spot in the batting order.<\/p>\n
“On the stolen base, I had to get my anger out,” Gingerella said. “They got me so I had to get them. Softball is number one for me. I love both sports. Doing track actually helps me for softball. Honestly, it’s a lot to put the work in for both sports.”<\/p>\n
Westerly softball coach Chris Luppe has featured a handful of single-season dual-sport, same-season athletes. The most prominent one was Megan Albamonti last decade. An excellent catcher, Albamonte was introduced to the javelin by track coach Dave Federico. She became a state champ and later a college track All-America at Delaware and at Alabama as a graduate student.<\/p>\n
“Megan was a great softball player but was out of this world in track,” Luppe said. “I’ve had some two-sport athletes on one team, including great softball players like Megan and Alex Mitchell. If an athlete excels in two sports, why not take advantage of the opportunity to do both.”<\/p>\n
The Rhode Island Interscholastic League allows athletes to do two sports if one is considered “individual” such as track. Connecticut and most other states limit to one sport a season.<\/p>\n
“I’m really happy that Rhode Island allows me to do both,” Gingerella said. “I never did track before high school but I found out I’m pretty good at it. It’s a lot of trust between the coaches and I that I’ll put in the work in both sports. It’s a lot but I really enjoy it.”<\/p>\n
Gingerella hasn’t faced a conflict schedule-wise yet. If there is a track meet and softball game on the same day, softball wins out, she said.<\/p>\n
“Softball is my priority but I love both sports,” Gingerella said. “I missed softball practice to do the track meet Monday, but I was back on the field Tuesday.”<\/p>\n
Luppe fully supports dual-sport endeavors.<\/p>\n
“I love having Dacia on the team,” Luppe said. “She works her tail off in track and softball. I know coach Fed loves having her on the track team. He doesn’t throw compliments around easily but speaks very highly of her which is all you need to know about her.<\/p>\n
“If the kids want to compete and you’re not putting too much stress on them, let them compete,” Westerly softball coach Chris Luppe said. “You’re only in high school once, let them compete and have fun.”<\/p>\n
Tough loss<\/p>\n
The Bulldogs fell to 9-3 and sixth in Division I power index ratings after the 2-1 loss to 10-3 and No. 4 St. Raphael (10-3). The Saints scored two runs in the second inning when Ella Taylor and Piper McMurray hit doubles.<\/p>\n
Losing pitcher Frankie Arnold allowed just two baserunners the rest of the game and finished with a four-hitter and nine strikeouts. Westerly did not get a hit until the sixth inning off of Sousa, who struck out nine but walked four. Arnold walked with the bases loaded for Westerly’s run but the Bulldogs left the bases loaded and left eight runners on base.<\/p>\n
“We had more opportunities but left eight on base while they left three,” Luppe said. “That was the difference in the game. They had one inning and they took advantage and we had several and didn’t. We hit a number of hard hits right at people. A few feet right and left, we score four or five runs.”<\/p>\n
Luppe wants Westerly to peak in playoffs and isn’t too dismayed by a regular season loss, although this one was intense with Sousa barking after each strikeout to fuel the tension and a number of run-ins with umpires.<\/p>\n
“It was playoff-type intensity out there,” Luppe said. “You expect low-scoring close games with two of the top six teams in the state and [people get into it. It got heated. The playoffs are what matters, though. We could see each other again.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WESTERLY\u00a0\u2014 Dacia Gingerella’s body sometimes takes a beating as the Westerly senior balances a two-sport spring season in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694820,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2288],"tags":[2510,2315,2309,2336,10619,2351,5,2316,2323,2314,2317,2313,2340,2325,2447,2331,85043,87170,1296,43977,85044,87166,440,87165,2425,2330,3335,43979,2333,87168,2422,10506,37988,10626,27007,87171,2334,19,2310,2328,2304,2318,2308,2319,3637,4,2305,2303,258,36350,21628,36349,35196,10624,2307,87609,37989,43978,38255,10628,43976,4508,3824,2327,2321,87167,2525,19301,37987,19300,185,33576,2324,2420,28691,10625,10622,3339,2338,2311,2448,87169,13884,2312,7902,10627,1039],"class_list":["post-694819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb-postseason","tag-american-football","tag-athletic-sports","tag-ball-and-bat-games","tag-ball-games","tag-balls","tag-base-on-balls","tag-baseball","tag-baseball-competitions","tag-baseball-events","tag-baseball-finals","tag-baseball-games","tag-baseball-playoffs-and-champions","tag-baseball-positions","tag-baseball-teams","tag-batting-baseball","tag-batting-order-baseball","tag-disciplines-in-the-sport-of-athletics","tag-discus-throw","tag-entertainment","tag-european-tour-events","tag-events-in-track-and-field","tag-game-equipment","tag-games","tag-games-and-sports","tag-games-of-physical-skill","tag-glossary-of-baseball-terms","tag-golf","tag-golf-tournaments","tag-grass-field-surfaces","tag-hammer-throw","tag-hit-baseball","tag-individual-sports","tag-indoor-sports","tag-international-sports","tag-international-sports-competitions","tag-javelin-throw","tag-lawn-games","tag-major-league-baseball","tag-major-league-baseball-competitions","tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","tag-major-league-baseball-seasons","tag-major-league-baseball-teams","tag-major-league-baseball-teams-seasons","tag-men","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-playoffs","tag-mlb-postseason","tag-national-football-league","tag-nfl-seasons","tag-nfl-teams","tag-nfl-teams-seasons","tag-october-in-sports","tag-olympic-sports","tag-outdoor-sports","tag-par-score","tag-partial-squatting-position","tag-pga-tour-events","tag-physical-activity-and-dexterity-toys","tag-physical-exercise","tag-precision-sports","tag-sacrifice-fly","tag-seasons-in-american-football","tag-seasons-in-american-sport","tag-seasons-in-baseball","tag-shot-put","tag-shutout-baseball","tag-solo-activities","tag-spherical-objects","tag-sport-of-athletics","tag-sports","tag-sports-equipment","tag-sports-events","tag-sports-rules-and-regulations","tag-sports-segments","tag-summer-olympic-games","tag-summer-olympic-sports","tag-summer-sports","tag-team-activities","tag-team-sports","tag-throwing","tag-throwing-sports","tag-track-and-field","tag-turf-sports","tag-volleyball","tag-western-sports","tag-world-series"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=694819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}