The Brattleboro Colonels boys' lacrosse team is off to a 4-0 start, thanks to a combination of steady defense and goaltending, and patience on offense.
The Colonels displayed both in an 8-5 win over Spaulding on Saturday at Natowich Field. Brattleboro was missing several players, but the team's depth carried the day. With the game tied 2-2 late in the first half, the Colonels scored four quick goals from Nik Rancourt, Brandon Zolnoski, Jesse Brown, and Jon Thomson for a 6-2 lead at the break.
Conner Elliott-Knaggs and Philip Perkins started the Colonels scoring in the first half, and Zolnoski and Thomson got the insurance goals in the second half. Goalie Romello Lindsey made nine tough saves to preserve the win.
Last Tuesday, the Colonels battled to an 11-9 win over Mount Anthony. Thomson scored four goals, while Sam Siegel and Colin Campbell each had three goals for the Colonels. David Mahoney scored his first varsity goal, and Rancourt had three assists. Lindsey stopped seven shots.
Girls' lacrosse
• Maddie Rollins scored three goals, but it wasn't quite enough as Brattleboro lost its home opener to Rutland, 8-6, on Thursday night at Natowich Field.
This was a tightly-played, back-and-forth game throughout, until Rutland scored two goals in the final nine minutes to put the game away. Becca Bird had one goal and an assist for the Colonels, while Lizzie Clarke and Karley Fortier each added a goal. Goalie Marissa Semenovich had 10 saves.
Brattleboro bounced back with a 20-5 win over Spaulding in Barre on Saturday.
Ava Myette led the scoring with four goals, while Rollins had three goals and five assists. Bird scored three times and had two assists, and Karly Fortier also scored three goals and assisted on another. Rachel Hill and Meghan Kinsman had two goals each and Hannah Lynde, Carli Gossard, and Megan Siggins all scored. Semenovich had 10 saves in goal as the Colonels improved to 3-3 on the season.
Baseball
• Soren Pelz-Walsh led off the game with a triple, and kept right on hitting as Brattleboro topped Burr & Burton, 8-5, at Tenney Field last Thursday. Pelz-Walsh drove in two more runs in the second with a base hit, and Travis Beeman-Nesbitt and Evan Parro also swung hot bats as the Colonels improved to 4-1.
• Pitcher Jeremy Kilburn threw 6 1/3 innings to pick up the win as Bellows Falls beat Otter Valley, 10-3, in Brandon last Tuesday. Kilburn helped himself with two hits, as the Terriers broke the game open with a six-run sixth.
On Thursday, Matt Marchica and Mike LaBeau split the mound duties as the Terriers beat Springfield, 10-5. Kilburn and Ethan Illingworth each had two hits and two RBIs.
• Twin Valley was beaten by Green Mountain, 12-6, last Monday. The game was close until three errors in the fourth and fifth innings by the Wildcats turned the game into a rout. The Wildcats had a decent day at the plate as Sam Molner and Dal Nesbitt each went 2-for-3 with a double.
On Friday, Arlington beat the Wildcats, 7-3. Twin Valley had another good day at the plate, as Colin Lozito went 2-for-2, including an RBI, and Eli Park went 2-for-3, while Dylan Johnson hit two doubles. But all that offense was squandered as the Wildcats had three baserunners thrown out at home. That, plus shaky fielding, equalled a loss for the Wildcats.
• Winning pitcher Caleb Bristol struck out nine over six innings and Drew Barnum picked up the save with an inning of scoreless relief as Leland & Gray beat Windsor, 3-1, last Wednesday in Townshend. The Rebels still managed to win despite being held to four hits by losing pitcher Nate Marden. The difference was a pair of walks in the first inning and a pair of Windsor errors in the second inning that gave the Rebels all the runs they needed.
On Saturday, the Rebels rallied for five runs in the top of the seventh to beat Springfield, 10-6. Jake Sherman and Barnum each finished with three hits as the Rebels improved to 5-1 on the season.
Softball
• Brattleboro's Kayla Wood struck out 14 batters as the Colonels edged the Springfield Cosmos, 1-0, at Sawyer Field last Thursday.
The only run in the game came in the third inning. McKinlie Carpenter doubled, took third on a fielder's choice, and scored on a double steal as Kalee Graham, who drew a walk, kept right on going to second base.
Springfield pitcher Heather Sanborn struck out nine batters, and held the Colonels to just three hits. Wood got two of those hits.
The win over Springfield was the perfect antidote for a painful 5-4 loss at Amherst, Mass., last Tuesday.
In the Amherst game, Brattleboro led 3-0, but four errors led to four runs for Amherst in the third inning. Brattleboro tied the game in the sixth before Amherst pushed across the winning run in the bottom of the eighth.
Graham went 3-for-5 with a homer to lead the Colonels' hitters, while Erin Gendreau, Bridie Carmichael, and Bailey Paige all hit safely. Wood struck out eight and walked one in holding Amherst to six hits.
• Leland & Gray rallied to an 11-7 win over Twin Valley in Townshend last Tuesday. The Rebels scored four runs in both the fifth and sixth innings as Elizabeth Symanski and AshleyGoddard each doubled for the hosts in the fifth, and Kori Griffin slammed an RBI triple and Nicole Sherman hit a two-run homer in the sixth.
Sherman was the winning pitcher, scattering seven hits with 13 strikeouts and seven walks. Kate Corey gave up six hits, with eight strikeouts and 11 walks, to take the loss for Twin Valley. Jordan Niles and Colton Butler had two hits apiece for the Wildcats.
• Bellows Falls got ripped by Fall Mountain, 19-3, last Monday in a six-inning home game cut short by the 15-run rule. With five freshmen in the starting lineup, the Terriers are struggling, particularly on defense. It was Fall Mountain's first win of the season.
The following day, Mill River beat the the Terriers, 13-5. BF had five hits for the game, but three of them came from Rhianna Pratt, who also drove in three runs. Losing pitcher Emma Shaw had five strikeouts.
Track and field
• Three Brattleboro boys teams finished third in the Fenn Relays on Friday at the Freeman Track.
Jonathon Burdo, Sam Kochinskas, Ethan Manning, and Trenton Fletcher came in third in the 4 x 110 shuttle hurdles in 1 minute, 9 seconds, while Jacob Ellis, Abadi Goodnow, Alec Silver and Kochinskas took third in the 4 x 400 in 3:44, and Paxton Reed, Kochinskas, Silver and Ellis ended up third in the 1,600 sprint medley in 3:47.
On the girl's side, Eliza Reynolds, Chiara Levin, Helen Manning and Halie Lange teamed up for fourth place for Brattleboro in the 1,600 sprint medley in 4:45.
• In the Weiser/Howard Relays in Bellows Falls last Wednesday, the Terrier boys won the event, edging out Brattleboro.
BF had team wins in the javelin, long jump, triple jump, and pole vault as TJ Bernier, Kendrick Mills, and John Punger all played a role in the victories. Joe Aslin was the individual winner in the javelin with a toss of 143 feet, while Punger cleared 11-1 in the pole vault to win the individual title.
The high jump team of Kochinskas, Trent Fletcher and Colin Owen was the only team to finish first for the Colonels. Kochinskas was the individual champion in the high jump with his clearance of 5-8, while Reed won the individual triple jump title.
Fun runs begin May 2
• The Red Clover Rovers' Wednesday fun runs begin on May 2. All runs take place every other Wednesday evening at 6:30 p.m.,on Upper Dummerston Road (opposite the Brattleboro Country Club). Participants will have the option of entering the one, two or three-mile race.
Other race dates are May 16, May 30, June 13, June 27, July 11, July 25, Aug. 8, Aug. 22, and Sept. 5. For more information on this free race series, call race directors Gary and Christine Montgomery at 603-363-8420.