By Kevin Mills,Staff Writer

TURNER – Pete Higgins looked at the earned run average of his pitchers and looked at the record of his Leavitt softball team and realized that something was amiss.

Pitchers Brittany Gurney and Beth Burgess had ERA’s under two, yet the Hornets were 3-6 entering Wednesday’s game.

So Higgins sat his team down Tuesday in practice and the emphasis was defense.

“We’ve been having defensive lapses,” said Higgins. “We just had to change up some stuff. We’ve had games where errors have let the other team into the game. We talked about it, and everybody felt good about it.”

The Hornets may have felt even better after Wednesday’s 3-1 win over Edward Little. In a game where each team mustered just four hits, it was the flawless Leavitt defense that made the difference.

“We haven’t been doing very well defensively,” said shortstop Steph Healy. “We’ve had a lot of errors in the past few games. We had a talk at our last practice. We really got ourselves together. We went out as a team this morning. We kind of just put our heads into it today and focused.”

After a nifty double play nixed an EL threat in the second, Leavitt’s defense displayed more poise with each inning.

The Red Eddies (2-6) on the other hand wilted as one bad inning put them in a hole a for good.

“Since that Lewiston game (a 5-4 win), that’s the way it’s been,” said EL coach Elaine Keene. “We made some mistakes, and we just don’t feel it anymore, I guess. They just don’t think they can do it.

“Since Lewiston and since losing to Brunswick, 1-0, it hasn’t been the team that played those two games.”

With a 1-0 lead in the third, two errors in the bottom of the inning helped the Hornets take a 2-1 lead. An errant throw on a Heidi Swett grounder allowed Mallory Coleman to tie the game, and Healy followed with a single up the middle that put the Hornets ahead.

“That was very big,” said Healy. “Our first couple of innings have been really rough on us. They’ve always scored. We held them today, and we came back with runs. That was really good for our confidence.”

Leavitt (4-6) added another run in the fourth when Jess Paladino doubled, advanced on a passed ball and scored on a Coleman fielder’s choice.

Though EL produced its four hits through the first four innings, the Red Eddies couldn’t spark the offense against Gurney after falling behind. Ashley Pepin had two of EL’s four hits.

“We’re not getting any hits and runs to support the pitching and defense and give us some breathing room,” said Keene. “Nine hits against (Lewiston’s) Amanda Michaud and nothing since then. It comes down to hitting. They crush the ball in practice, and they just can’t make that transition from practice to the game.”

EL put the pressure on early but a double play squelched that aggressiveness in the second. After Beth Beaulieu grounded out, first baseman Beth Burgess threw to third where Swett made a tag on Lyndsey St. Hilaire to end the inning.

“That double play was a big play for us,” said Higgins. “They did a good job on that.”

EL got the first run in the next inning on a Pepin single.