After the Brattleboro Colonels baseball team crashed and burned last season with a 3-13 record, coach Chris Groeger presented this year's squad with two goals: get into the Division I playoffs and get a high-enough seed to host a playoff game.
The Colonels met both goals by finishing the regular season with a 10-6 record and earning the seventh seed in the Division I state tournament. They were scheduled to host No. 10 North Country (8-8) in a first-round game at Tenney Field on June 4.
Brattleboro finished the regular season with 4-3 loss to Burr & Burton in nine innings on May 28 and a 14-5 rout of Mount Anthony last Friday in Bennington.
Baseball
• Mill River ended Bellows Falls' hot streak with a 7-0 shutout win on May 27. Austin Stack went 2 for 4 and Carson Fullam had three hits to lead the Terriers. Fullam and Chris Armstrong split the pitching duties.
On May 29, BF picked up a 13-7 win over Fair Haven. The Terriers stole eight bases and rallied from a 6-4 deficit. Carson Fullam had three hits and four RBIs for BF, which ended the season at 9-7. That gave the Terriers the ninth seed in the Division II tournament. They were scheduled to face No. 9 Oxbow (7-9) in a first-round game on June 3.
• Twin Valley edged Leland & Gray, 12-11, in a slugfest at Baker Field on May 27. Brett Swanson had three hits, including the game-winning single. Colin Lozito, Dal Nesbitt, and Chris Robinson had two hits apiece for the Wildcats, and Kyle Murdock was the winning pitcher.
• The loss to Twin Valley was the fourth in a row for the Rebels, but Leland & Gray recovered with a 11-3 win over Springfield on May 29 to close out the regular season with an 8-8 record. Rebels ace Josh Donna got the win.
Leland & Gray, 10th seed in the Division III tournament, was set to travel to No. 7 Williamstown (9-5) on June 3.
Twin Valley (9-7) got the No. 3 seed in Division IV and will host the winner of the June 3 game between No. 6 West Rutland and No. 11 Proctor in a quarterfinal game on June 7 at Baker Field.
Softball
• Brattleboro ended the regular season on May 28 with a 5-3 win over Mount Anthony in Bennington. The Colonels jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning and maintained control after that.
Daisy Giroux went 2 for 4, including a two-run single in the fourth inning that pushed the Colonels' lead to 5-1. Maddy Derosia had a two-run single in the first inning. Hannah Wilson scattered seven hits to get the complete game win. She struck out four and walked one.
The win was a nice bounceback for a painful 5-4 loss to Springfield on May 27 at Sawyer Field. In this game, it was Springfield that roared out to the early lead. Trailing 4-0 at the end of the first, the Colonels battled back to tie the game, only to see the Cosmos win it in the seventh with a bases-loaded single by Sara Locke. Giroux and Derosia both had two hits in the loss.
The defending Division I state champs earned the No. 6 seed in the tournament, and were scheduled to host No. 11 Colchester on June 3.
• Center fielder Emily Stockwell had a clutch two-run triple and made a game-saving catch with the bases loaded as Leland & Gray beat Twin Valley, 11-6, on May 27. Elizabeth Symanski, Jordan Gouger, and Jessi Stockwell had two hits each for the Rebels.
Symanski struck out nine, walked two, and got the win despite giving up nine hits. Colton Butler went 3 for 4 with two RBIs for the Wildcats. Savannah Nesbitt and Hannah Swanson each had two hits.
Twin Valley (5-10) was seeded ninth in the Division IV tournament. They are scheduled to play at No. 8 Twinfield (6-7) in a first round game on June 4.
• The win over Twin Valley was a nice pick-me-up for the Rebels, after they ran into the pitching buzzsaw that's Otter Valley's Taylor Aines this season. Aines threw a three-hitter in a 10-1 rout of the Rebels.
Against Fair Haven on May 28, the Rebels lost, 6-2. Symanski had nine hits and seven walks in the loss. The Rebels completed the regular season with a 9-8 win over Mill River in 10 innings. Jessie Stockwell scored the winning run when she led off the 10th with a triple and scored on a sacrifice fly by Erica Cutts.
Leland & Gray finished at 7-9, which gave them the No. 9 seed in Division III. They are scheduled to host No. 9 Northfield (6-10) on June 4.
• Bellows Falls pitcher Murphy Hicks held Burr & Burton to five hits in a 9-1 win for the Terriers. Emily Stoddard had three hits, including a double, and Chelsea Wilder had two hits.
BF earned the No. 6 seed in Division II with an 8-6 record. They were scheduled to host No. 11 Peoples (5-10) on June 3.
Boys' lacrosse
• Brattleboro was poised to win its third straight Marble Valley League title on May 30, but Woodstock foiled those plans with a 11-9 victory at Natowich Field. Tanner Freeman and Sam Siegel each scored three goals for the Colonels, while Oliver Kaija scored six for the Wasps.
The next night, the Colonels lost to Mount Anthony, 10-8, at Natowich Field. Freeman had four goals and an assist, and Brennen Zolnoski had two goals and an assist. Conner Elliott-Knaggs, Evan Perkins, Jack Gagnon, and Siegel each added a goal.
The Colonels (12-4) earned the No. 4 seed in Division I and a quarterfinal game at Natowich Field. They'll face the winner of the first round game on June 3 between No. 5 Middlebury and No. 12 Spaulding on June 6 at 4:30 p.m.
Girls' lacrosse
• Brattleboro split a doubleheader with the Mount Anthony Patriots last Thursday in Bennington.
In the completion of a weather-disrupted game, the Patriots won, 17-8. Emily Altman had five goals for the winner. Cassidy Stebbins and Lizzie Clark each had three goals for the Colonels, while Anna Burch had two goals.
Brattleboro beat Mount Anthony, 9-6, in the Colonels' regular season finale. Clark had six goals, Hannah Lynde tallied twice, and Megan Siggins also scored. Marissa Semenovich finished with 10 saves for the Colonels.
The Colonels (8-6) were seeded eighth in Division I and host No. 9 Burlington (8-6) on June 4.
Girls' tennis
• Tenth-seeded Brattleboro was swept by No. 7 Burlington, 7-0, in the first round of the Division I tournament on May 27.
Katie Tsukamoto, Jenn Hutton, Taylor Bird, Jaida Henry, Grace Willingham, and the first doubles duo of Aliza Racine-Haley Marcil all lost in two sets. The only close match came in No. 2 doubles, as Burlington's Katherine Becker and Lily Weissgold needed three sets to defeat Brattleboro's Greta Larson and Danielle Looman 4-6, 6-1, 10-6.
The Colonels finished up with a 5-10 record.