Slim victories over Timberlane and Bedford followed by a clean blowout of Division II opponent Windham last week left the Londonderry High softball squad striding into this week boasting an excellent 11-1 record.
Single runs in the first and fourth innings combined with the strong pitching work of Ila Brown got the Lady Lancers a 2-0 nipping of the visiting Timberlane Lady Owls from Plaistow at LHS last Wednesday, May 10.
Londonderry only managed five hits in the victory, with five different players rapping one in getting to the solid success.
Brown held Timberlane to just six hits on the winning day for the Lady Lancers, and the pitcher helped her own cause by driving in one of the LHS runs.
The victory made the locals 9-1 on the campaign, while struggling Timberlane lost its seventh consecutive decision.
But the LHS crew had to hang on tight late to claim a 6-5 win from Bedford on the road last Friday the 12th in upping its 2017 record to a glittering 10-1.
Freshman standout Gia Komst bashed the first of her three hits on the day in the second inning – driving in a teammate in the process – in handing her squad a 1-0 lead. But the host Lady Bulldogs would vault into the lead at 2-1 on a two-run home run in the third.
Emily Nelson got the game tied for the locals by slapping a clutch, two-out double in the top of the fifth, and 2-2 was where the score would remain until the Lady Lancers scored four more times in the top of the seventh to go up 6-2.
In that key half-inning, a lead-off double by Brown and another Komst smack got things started. Two batters later, Val Shay lifted an opposite-field single to left which scored Brown with the go-ahead run. Emily Nelson then followed with another clutch drive – this time a two-run single – in making it a 5-2 game. And she was sent scampering home on a Katrina Rivard single moments later.
Bedford battled hard to come all the way back from its four-run deficit in the bottom of the seventh but finally failed to do so, falling 6-5.
Pitcher Andi Nelson struck out 11 batters and allowed eight hits in another winning LHS effort.
Londonderry then pummeled Division II opponent Windham by a 7-0 tally on that opponent’s home diamond on Saturday the 13th, rolling into this week at 11-1 with a three-game winning streak cooking.
And the locals hoped to continue their winning ways when they were slated to make the short trip over to Hudson to take on the host Alvirne High Lady Broncos this past Monday, May 15. But Mother Nature stepped in the way of those plans.