CRAFTSBURY – The Twinfield-Cabot-Danville (CCSU) softball team used some aggressive base-running to clip Craftsbury Academy (CA) on the road before falling to top seeded Blue Mountain in the Division IV playoffs last week.
Freshman Austin Roos stole home in the third inning for the eventual game winner and Kendall Hale earned the victory in the circle with a complete game effort to lead the ninth seeded Lady Trojans to a 3-2 road win over CA last Tuesday.
The Lady Chargers jumped out to an early 2-0 advantage in the bottom of the first with a double from Savanah Boyce, an RBI triple from Hazen’s Sarah Collier, and an RBI single from fellow senior Sadie Skorstad. CCSU knotted the game at 2-2 in the top of the second, manufacturing a pair of runs with a trio of walks and a hit batsmen. Boyce relieved Hazen Union’s Serenity Leach to close the door on a potential big inning for the Lady Trojans, striking out the final two batters to end the rally. Roos drew a walk to start the third inning and moved to third on a double from Sophi Mancini, before stealing home on a heads up play for the game winner.
Mancini ended the day a perfect 3-3 at the plate with a walk and a run scored, Finley Washburn was 1-2, Phoebe Crocker rounded out a balanced CCSU lineup with a 1-3 effort. Hale struck out eight Lady Chargers on the day, scattering seven hits. Boyce was 2-4 to lead CA, Collier was 2-3, and Hazen’s Gracie Crown belted a double in the loss.
“Our first two games against CA this season were very competitive, and the girls were excited to face them again in the first round of the playoffs. Kendall was phenomenal for us in the circle and our defense did a great job backing her up with some solid plays. We were aggressive on the base paths and Austin saw an opportunity to steal a run in the third and executed it,” said CCSU co-head coach Christin Martin.
Top-seeded Blue Mountain continued their march to back-to-back Division IV titles on Friday, cruising to a 22-2 home win over the Lady Trojans. Ava Kingsbury hit for the cycle and drove in seven runs and Maya Christy and Kaylee Hamlett added a home run apiece for the potent Lady Buck offense. Hamlett also earned the victory in the circle, striking out seven over six innings of work. Roos led CCSU with a pair of hits and Hale smacked a two-run double in the loss. Martin and Summer Haverick have led the CCSU softball program to playoff wins in back-to-back years for the first time in over a decade and will not lose a single senior to graduation this spring.
“Summer and I were so glad to see the continuous improvement in the girl’s skill and teamwork throughout the season. We’ll have quite a bit of senior experience next season and moving forward, we hope to keep building the program by getting the older girls to continue to mentor our younger and less experienced players. We want to see our participation numbers keep increasing and we’ll keep working hard at maintaining the team comradery and positivity we’ve had within the program the last few seasons,” said Martin.
Blue Mountain improved to 14-3 on the season and hosted fourth-seeded Richford in the semifinals on Tuesday. Second seeded West Rutland and third-seeded Proctor squared off in the other semifinal match-up.
