After scuffling mightily during its first several games of the 2015 season, the Londonderry High softball team’s offense began showing signs of potency by the end of last week.
The Lady Lancers had their offense start to percolate some in a loss to Bishop Guertin, click into a higher gear in a win over Concord, and then ramp up yet again in a drubbing of the rival Pinkerton Academy crew at week’s end.
The Lady Lancers continued to try to get their attack into gear Wednesday, April 22, when they played host to the Bishop Guertin Lady Cardinals of Nashua. They did better, but not well enough to avert a 6-3 loss to the opponent in suffering their third straight loss.
The Nashuans raced out to a 3-0 lead with single runs in the first, third, and fourth innings, but Londonderry answered with a single marker in the latter half of the fourth inning and then two more in the bottom of the sixth to knot the score at 3-3.
However, the visitors scored three more times in the top of the seventh and wound up bagging the 6-3 win.
Ali Nelson rapped two hits and drove in two of the LHS run, and Justine McElman was also good for two safeties and one RBI. Londonderry finished with a total of seven hits.
The outcome wound up being better for coach Wayne MacDougall’s mob two days later in Concord as the Lady Lancers rebounded from an early 4-0 deficit to win 8-6.
Versatile freshman Maryellen Leach took over in the pitching circle in the second inning after the host Crimson Tide had bagged its early advantage, and she held Concord in check for a while while her offense plated five runs in the top of the fourth, two more in the fifth, and one more in the seventh to claim an 8-4 lead.
The hosts scored twice more in the bottom of the seventh to close the gap, but they couldn’t rebound fully.
The Lady Lancers bashed out 15 hits in the victory, with Elizabeth Niven smacking three and Val Shay, McElman, Katrina Rivard, and Leach each tallying two. Shay also drove in two runs.
The Lancer squad wasn’t quite as prolific with hits when it faced the Pinkerton Lady Astros in Beeman Trophy action last Saturday, April 25 – tallying just seven safeties – but the final score showed the Lady Lancers collecting an 8-1 victory from the rival.
Londonderry busted open a tight 1-0 game with a seven-run fifth frame to claim an 8-0 lead. And all Pinkerton could respond with was a single marker in the bottom half of the sixth.
LHS pitcher Leach held the hosts to just four hits and smacked one of two home runs bashed by Londonderry – fellow ninth grader Lauren Misiaszek had the other – as the Lady Lancers evened their season record at 3-3.
Winning pitcher Leach wound up being the only Londonderry hitter to tally two hits in the lopsided win.
The Lady Lancers took another trip down victory road Monday when they hosted the Exeter High Lady Blue Hawks and pasted that opponent by an 8-2 score. Londonderry’s record moved over the .500 mark to 4-3 with that success, while Exeter slipped to 1-5.