Led by coach Erin Moloney, the 2014 Londonderry High School junior varsity softball squad faced a schedule of 17 contests. And with a balanced bunch of talent, including skilled pitchers, impressive fielders, and softball-socking hitters, the Lady Lancers won each one of those games.
Moloney, herself a former LHS athlete and presently a social studies teacher at the school, had an on-field crew of players Andi Nelson, Justine McElman, Elizabeth Niven, Ali Nelson, Riley Barton, Taylor Krause, Casey Humes, Jessica Toomey, Elizabeth DeVoss, Katrina Rivard, Val Shay, Gillian Kayo, and Caylin McNamara.
The players on this squad are what one might safely refer to as “serious” softball players, as numerous members of the squad play on American Softball Association (ASA) teams away from school as well as being involved in high school ball.
Moloney’s mob had its pitching staff collect three no-hitters during the undefeated campaign, and that pitching staff was plenty deep with five hurlers seeing time and finding success in the pitching circle.
The LHS pitchers only allowed 36 runs in their 17 games – slightly more than two runs per contest – while striking out more than 120 batters.
The Lady Lancers won six of their contests in “mercy rule” fashion, with those contests lasting just five innings because the Londonderry squad had built up a double-digit advantage to claim a blowout.
And speaking of scoring runs, the Londonderry bunch had eight of its players slam at least one home run during a campaign in which the “team” concept ruled above any thoughts of individual accomplishments by the girls.
Moloney’s monster of an offense scored 237 runs in the 17 victories, thus outscoring the opposition by 201 runs.
And all of the above is exceptional news for LHS varsity softball coach Wayne MacDougall, whose 2014 contingent had a moderately underwhelming campaign and fell out of title contention far earlier than MacDougall or his charges would have liked.
The varsity crew went 10-8 during the regular season, ended up being the number 10 seed going into the Division I tournament, and quite disappointingly fell to seventh-ranked Concord in a shutout in the first round of the tourney.