It was a game that had a little bit of just about everything, including
the storied rivalry that has been built up between Londonderry High School and Pinkerton Academy over decades.
And in this chapter of the softball story between the LHS Lady Lancers and Pinkerton’s Lady Astros, the visiting Londonderry crew strode away with a 12-4 victory that featured 21 total hits, some strong pitching despite those many smacks, five errors, and plenty more in Derry last Friday, May 3.
Coach Wayne MacDougall’s Lady Lancers notched 12 hits and took advantage of three Pinkerton errors, and also got strong pitching work from veteran lefty Leah Hunt in snagging their third consecutive win in pushing their Division I record up to 6-4.
The LHS bunch powered its way out to a 6-0 lead with two runs in the top of the second inning and four more in the top of the third, but the Lady Astros answered with a four-spot of their own in the latter half of the third to make it a 6-4 contest. However, MacDougall’s mob busted the game open by plating four more runs in the top of the fifth frame and two more in the top of the sixth in getting
to the final score of 12-4. Just three of the Lady Lancers’ dozen runs were earned runs, and four of the squad’s batters smacked two hits apiece. Cassidy Litch and Colleen Lewis were two of the LHS players who did so, and each also drove in four runs. Lauren Reinhold notched two hits and drove in two runs while also managing to score four times, and Coastal Carolina University-bound
senior captain Sirena Paiva – who has been hampered by nagging injuries throughout the campaign stepped into the leadoff spot and raked two hits and drove in one run. Londonderry pitcher Hunt put forth a complete game performance, allowing just one earned run and striking out three batters while walking none.
The Lady Lancers then began this week with a colossal test in the form of a home game against the 8-2 Salem High Lady Blue Devils this past Monday. And coach MacDougall’s mob ended up on the down side of a 7-4 score against the tough Salem squad.
The Lady Lancers led by a 2-0 tally after two full frames, but Salem plated one run in the third and two more in the fifth to collect a 3-2 advantage. The Lady Devils then leaped into a 5-2 lead with two more runs in the top of the sixth, and each team plated two markers in the seventh inning to reach the 7-4 final score.Salem tallied a total of 11 hits in its victory, while the hosts notched eight of them, with Hunt and Brooke Tulley each driving in two in what eventually proved to be a fruitless cause for LHS.