After starting its 2016 season with a shutout loss on the road, the Londonderry High softball team outscored its next two opponents by a combined tally of 23-3 in going 2-1 overall in its first three contests of the new season last week.
The Lancers dropped a 4-0 decision to the Spaulding High Lady Red Raiders in Rochester on Wednesday, April 13. But neither the Winnacunnet High nor the Pinkerton Academy squads seemed to have much of a chance against the LHS crew in the squad’s next two battles.
In the season-opening defeat, the Lancers only managed a total of three hits while watching Spaulding plate single runs in the bottom halves of the first and second innings and two markers in the bottom of the third en route to its 4-0 shutout win.
But it was an entirely different story for the LHS contingent in its home-opener against Winnacunnet of Hampton on Friday, April 15, with the Lancers pounding its way to a 9-0 victory behind pitcher and slugger Ilana Brown.
Standing in for ailing ace hurler Andi Nelson, sophomore Brown pitched a four-hitter, striking out a dozen Lady Warriors and contributing two triples and three runs batted in to the cause.
The Lancers bashed out 14 hits in the victory, with Liz Niven smacking three and driving in a run and Cassidy Raza and Katrina Rivard drilling two safeties apiece and each also driving in a run.
And the LHS bunch was even more prolific in defeating the rival Pinkerton Academy Lady Astros by a 14-2 tally in Derry Saturday, April 16.
The Lancers got 18 hits and raced to victory by plating five runs in the second, three in the third, two more in the fourth, one in the fifth, and another three in the seventh.
Brown held Pinkerton to a paltry two hits while getting stellar support from her own offense.
Raza, Anna Maggio, Nelson, and Niven all smacked multiple hits as the Lady Lancers rolled.
Then this past Monday the Londonderry bunch took aim at moving its early-season record to 3-1 when it traveled to the state capital to take on the host Concord High Crimson Tide.
And the Lady Lancers gave their coach Wayne MacDougall a birthday present that afternoon, upping their season record to 3-1 with a 3-1 victory over the Concord crew.
The locals plated one run in the top of the first inning and two more in the second to claim the lead, which they’d never relinquish.
Londonderry smacked out seven hits, with Brown rapping two of those and also doing strong work in the pitcher’s circle again.
Londonderry softball player Rachel Simkevich slides safely into home during her team’s drubbing of Pinkerton last week. Photo by Chris Paul