Whether playing within their home fields or on the road, the Londonderry Lightning softball teams usually manage to find success.
And that has been borne out recently by a number of Lightning contingents, especially the 10-U Blue crew that won a tournament in Barrington, then snagged a district title in Litchfield before playing host to the state tournament in Londonderry last weekend.
In the district tourney in Litchfield, the Blue contingent edged out the tough Merrimack Magic bunch by a 3-1 tally in the semifinals on the way to the championship.
Then in last weekend’s state event, the 10-U Blue contingent’s performances included an overpowering quarterfinal-round effort against Souhegan Valley on Sunday that saw the hosts tally a 12-0 win in four innings of action as well as a 13-0 blowout against the Sugar River Pride with Madison Haggett and Santos combined for the shutout.
In Sundays blowout, pitcher Jillian Santos twirled a no-hitter and Olivia Chau and Sam Minton both smacked home runs.
The U-10 Blue team made it as far as the state tourney’s semifinals before being eliminated by Windham.
Head coach Frank Jarek and his assistants Jim Laudani and Kriss Minton have a talented troop that includes Chau, Santos, Sam Minton, Sam Daniels, Talia Ferguson, Madison Haggett, Bella Jarek, Lauren Laudani, Sydney Rankin, and Emily Rivera.
The Lightning 12-U team also played host to its state tourney over the weekend and reached Sunday action.
After going 1-2 in pool play on Saturday, that squad faced off against the Manchester-based Granite State Rockers on Sunday morning and fell to that opponent by an 8-7 tally in eight frames despite a gutsy, complete-game pitching effort from Sarah Frazier.
That team is coached by Steve Frazier, who is assisted by Steve Glynn and Bill Dobe. The players include Frazier, Maya Rutina, Colleen Bernard, Michaela Doyle, Jillian Glynn, Molly McGuirk, Riley Walter, Noelle Dobe, Alexa Calligandes, Emily Rollins, Kylee Dodge, Madison Rankin, and Sophia Norton.
And while those two Lightning squads were hosting big action at home, coach Kevin Handy’s Lightning 10-U Red crew was in Bellingham, Mass., playing in a tournament. That group got plenty of impressive work done in its own tourney play.
The Red bunch overpowered the Canton, Mass., contingent by a 17-2 count on Saturday morning, and that afternoon the locals drove past the Darlington Elite (R.I.) squad 7-3.
Handy is assisted by Cooper Binette, Brendan Burns, and Casey Humes, and his roster includes Madison Bickford, Riley Burns, Brooklyn Flinkfelt, Emily Goldberg, Lily Haggett, McKenzie Hoyt, Shannon Hynes, Olivia O’Connell, Sarah Peckham, Madison Saucier, and Abby Weeks.