If you've ever wondered why most high school and college softball pitchers now wear protective masks, ask Brattleboro varsity softball pitcher Hailey Derosia.
The junior took a line drive to the face during the third inning of the visiting Colonels' 12-1 victory over Hartford on April 26. Instead being of taken to the hospital, the mask saved her from serious injury and gave her a chance to finish one of her best all-around games of the season.
Derosia went 4-for-4 at the plate, with two doubles and a triple, and drove in six runs. In the circle, she struck out 11 and walked four in throwing a two-hitter. Jamie Mahoney and Rachael Rooney each went 2-for-3, and Lauren McKenney, Mya McAuliffe, and Kayla Leonard-Houle each got a base hit.
On April 23, Derosia and Mahoney each had three hits as the visiting Colonels crushed the Springfield Cosmos, 21-0.
Mahoney drove in three runs, while McKenney, Olivia Leonard-Houle, and Derosia all had two RBIs for the Colonels. Rooney, McAuliffe, Alexa Kinsley, and Kayla Leonard-Houle all added one hit.
With that kind of offensive output, it's hard to believe that this was a 1-0 game going into the fifth inning.
Derosia, who helped her cause with a home run, was the winning pitcher with her second no-hit shutout this season. She struck out 14 and walked six.
Against Otter Valley at Sawyer Field on April 28, Derosia threw her third no-hit shutout as the Colonels rolled to a 15-0 win in a five-inning game cut short by the mercy rule. She struck out eight and walked one batter. Mahoney led Brattleboro's 12-hit attack as she went 3-for-4 with two doubles.
Brattleboro ended the week at 5-0, and the Colonels are looking like a team primed for a great season.
Softball
• Olivia Brown was the winning pitcher and helped herself with four hits as Leland & Gray defeated Black River, 12-4, in Townshend on April 23.
Leland & Gray's Sydney Hescock collected her first varsity hits as she went 3-for-4, while teammate Sarah Andersen was 2-for-2 with a triple and four runs scored.
On April 29 in Townshend, the Rebels beat West Rutland, 17-12. Brown gave up 17 hits, but still managed to get the win. She struck out seven and walked four.
Losing pitcher Elizabeth Bailey gave up 16 walks and eight hits as the Rebels improved to 2-1.
• Bellows Falls found some late-inning lightning as the Terriers put up 16 runs in the sixth inning to earn a 20-5 win over visiting Twin Valley on April 24.
Amyra Terena, Paxton Santorelli, Emma Graham, and Maddison Dibernardo all had a hit in the Terriers' big rally. Santorelli struck out six batters and went the distance for BF's first win of the season.
A two-run double by Callie Dix was the biggest blow for the Wildcats. Jarrett Niles, Celia Betit, and Sadie Boyd all had an extra-base hit that drove in a run. It was Twin Valley's season opener.
On April 26, the Terriers found themselves on the opposite side of a rout as Mill River scored nine runs in both the second and fifth innings during a 20-1 victory over BF in a five-inning, mercy rule-shortened game.
Emily Harris and Paxton Santorelli took turns pitching for the Terriers and combined for six strikeouts. BF's only run came in the second inning, when Emma Graham drove in Brooke Bennett with a double.
On April 28, BF played host to Hartford and lost, 15-4. Hartford scored seven runs in the first inning and cruised from there. The Terriers finished the week at 1-4.
• Twin Valley had two more road losses last week - a 10-0 loss to Burr & Burton on April 26 and a 20-6 defeat against Proctor on April 28 - to finish the week with an 0-3 record.
Baseball
• UConn-bound pitcher Leif Bigleow may get all the buzz, but Brattleboro has a lot of other great players too.
Against Springfield on April 23 at Tenney Field, pitcher Adam Newton struck out six, walked one, and held Springfield to three hits as the Colonels blanked the Cosmos, 17-0.
Newton got plenty of run support as the Colonels pounded out 12 hits. Ben Nelson-Betz went 3-for-3 and drove in four runs, Brenden Gilbeau had 2 hits and 3 RBIs, Kam Pelkey got 2 hits and stole two bases, Jeremy Rounds had a hit and two stolen bases, and Kris Carroll got a hit and drove in a run.
The back of the Colonels' pitching rotation needs work, however. While Brattleboro defeated Hartford, 12-2, in five innings on April 26. starting pitcher Tyler Millerick struck out eight, walked eight, and gave up two hits in three innings of work. Ben Nelson-Betz gave up a walk and struck out one batter in two innings of mop-up work.
At the plate, Millerick went 2-for-3 and Kris Carroll had a three-run double. Dan Petrie, Adam Newton, Jeremy Rounds, Chris Frost, and Nelson-Betz all finished with one hit. Petrie, Newton, and Nelson-Betz all drove in one run.
Bigelow got the start against Otter Valley in Brandon on April 29, and even without his best stuff, the Colonels still cruised to a 7-0 win. Bigelow scattered five hits. However, despite putting two baserunners on in the first and loading the bases in the fourth, he pitched out of the jams. The Otters left nine runners on base as Bigelow finished with six strikeouts, one walk, and one hit batter.
Meanwhile, the Colonels hit their first three home runs of the season. Bigelow hit a solo shot while Millerick and Nelson-Betz each hit a two-run homer. Brattleboro improved to 5-0 and, like the softball team, is also primed for a long playoff run.
• With an inexperienced team that's learning on the fly, Bellows Falls is having an up-and-down season.
The down was a 14-1 loss to Fair Haven at Hadley Field on April 25 in a five-inning game shortened by the mercy rule.
The Slaters held BF to just four hits and made no errors in the field, while the Terriers gave eight hits, walked nine batters, and made five errors. Griffin Waryas was the losing pitcher, giving up seven runs in two innings. McGregor Vancor and Clayton Groenwold mopped up.
The up was a 5-2 win over Mill River at Hadley Field on April 28, completing a season-series sweep of the Minutemen and improving the Terriers' record to 2-4.
BF pitcher Spencer Clark threw a complete-game four-hitter to get the win. He walked two and struck out four in an economical 87-pitch effort.
Mill River pitcher John Upton held the Terriers to five hits in taking the complete-game loss, but he walked five and hit three batters.
Groenwold started the BF scoring with an RBI double to score Waryas in the first; he eventually scored on an infield hit by Noah Rawling.
The Terriers added to their lead with a run in the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings. Colton Baldasaro drove in the run in the fourth, pinch-hitter Jeff Rainville in the fifth and Vancor in the sixth.
• Leland & Gray lost to visiting Black River, 10-8, on April 23 in Townshend. Patrick McDonald went 2-for-4 to lead the Rebels' offense. Luc Dugrenier was the losing pitcher.
• Twin Valley finally started the season on April 26 with a 10-6 road win over Springfield. Joey Rafus, Connor Dupuis, and Hayden Reed divided the pitching duties and Eric Bolognani went 3-for-4 and Logan Park and Dupuis each got a pair of hits.
Track and Field
• For the third straight year, Keene, N.H., won the boys' meet at the annual Fenn Relays on April 27, while host team Brattleboro won the girls' meet on a cold, damp night at the Freeman Track.
The Keene boys won with 60 points, with Brattleboro coming in second with 44. Bellows Falls tied for fourth with Lebanon, N.H., with 27.
Brattleboro did not win any events, but racked up a bunch of seconds and thirds. The Colonel quartet of Ben Brady, Max King, Kade Perotti, and Jasper Reed was second in the 4x200 (1 minute, 41.52 seconds), while David Pierce joined King, Brady and Perotti for third in the 4x400 (3:43.23).
Colin Costa-Walsh, Pierce, Trevor Kipp and Isaac Freitas-Eagan came in third in the 4x800 (9:10.41), and Reed, Perotti, Orion Stone, and Costa-Walsh were second in the 200-200-400-800 relay (4:03.37). Stone, King, Alex Shriver, and Koch were second in the 4x110 shuttle hurdles (1:06.48).
BF's only top three finish came in the 4x200, where the team of Gabe Hakimoglu, Connor Smith, Shane Clark, and Andrew Elliot was first in 1:40.60.
The Brattleboro girls won with 51 points, while BF was second with 45 points. The two teams were evenly matched in this competition.
BF's Abbe Cravinho, Brigid Hodsden, Macie Streeter, and Michelle Marchica won the 75 meter shuttle (52.72) and Jasmine Boucher, Cravinho, Hale Dickerson, and Streeter won the 4x400 (4:26.01). Cravinho, Hodsden, Boucher, and Jaden Luebbert was second in the 4x100 (55.27), while Boucher, Cravinho, Luebbert, and Marchica came in third in the 4x200, and Reaghan Baldisaro, Megan Banik, Dickerson, and Lia Clark were third in the 4x800 (11:20.91).
Brattleboro's Dory Abdallah, Alina Secrest, Kharisma Boyd, and Maggie Lonardo won the 4x100 (53.99), while the Colonel quartet of Liz Morse, Emila Dick-Floria Del Fabro, Alexandra Miskovich, and Sarah Gallagher won the 4x800 (10:46.52). Gallagher, Honnee McManus, Morse, and Delany Bullock won the 1200-400-800-1600 relay (13:55.44). Lonardo, Secrest, McManus, and Boyd were second in the 4x200 (1:57.02), and Boyd, Lonardo, McManus, and Morse were third in the 200-200-400-800 relay (5:00.14).
• Reno Tuttle won the discus with a throw of 132 feet, 1 inch to help the Bellows Falls boys' track team to a first place finish in the annual Weiser/Howard Relays on April 24 at Hadley Field.
The Terrier boys, the defending Division III state champions, finished with 48 points in the 10-school event. Brattleboro placed fourth with 23 points.
Jasper Reed led the Colonels with victories in the long jump (20 feet, 9.75 inches) and triple jump (45 feet, 8.5 inches), while teammate Isaiah Gilbeau won the javelin with a toss of 142 feet, 5 inches.
In the girls' meet, it was a three-way tie for first in the pole vault as the Bellows Falls trio of Brigid Hodsden, Haley Covillion, and Jaden Luebbert all cleared 6 feet, 6 inches. Bellows Falls and Brattleboro placed second and fifth, respectively, in the team standings.
Unified basketball
• Brattleboro finished up the regular season with a 62-38 win over Otter Valley on April 26 at the BUHS gym. It was Senior Night, and seniors Jacob Williams and Joy Young led the way with 26 and 14 points, respectively.
The 7-1 Colonels, the defending state champions, earned the No. 1 seed in the Southern Division and got a first-round bye in the state tournament. They are scheduled to begin the playoffs with a quarterfinal game on May 3 or May 4.
• No. 5 Leland & Gray were scheduled to play at No. 4 Springfield in a first-round playoff game on April 30.
Tennis
• The Brattleboro boys' tennis team lost to visiting Amherst, Mass., 4-3, on April 23 at the BUHS courts.
“Brattleboro simply had too many strategic and tactical lapses in critical places and will focus on correcting that in the days ahead,” Colonels coach Charlie La Rosa wrote in an email to The Commons. “We have comparable skills. We just need to be better at seeing the evolution of points and have the patience to wait for opportunities to close them out.”
In singles play, Brattleboro's Josh Nordheim won 6-0, 6-0 over Augustus Accardi at No. 4, while No. 5 Tom Szpila defeated Jasper Scott 6-0, 6-0. At No. 2 doubles, Cole Merkle and Mason Foard needed an extra set to beat Sachin Khasu and Won-Ho Lee 6-3, 4-6, 10-4.
The top three singles matches were competitive, but Amherst swept them all. James Serhant beat No. 1 Martin Sipowicz 6-2, 6-2; Austin Xiong stopped No. 2 Jonah Petrie 6-0, 6-2; and Andrew Ni defeated No. 3 Alex Shuey 6-3, 6-2.
Amherst's No. 1 doubles duo of Eli Ji and Ethan Yu won 6-1, 6-0 over Brattleboro's Ari Essunfeld and Forest Zabriskie.
On April 26, Brattleboro took care of Burr & Burton, 5-2. Sipowicz, Petrie, Nordheim all won a singles match for the Colonels. The doubles duos of Essunfeld-Zabriskie and Merkle-Kyle Murray also won.
Two days later, in St. Johnsbury, the Colonels faced the Hilltoppers in an indoors match, and came up short, 4-3. Brattleboro swept the doubles matches, but lost four of the five singles matches. The Colonel boys are now 1-4 on the season.
• Rutland made quick work out of the Brattleboro girls with a 6-1 win on April 26.
The only match won by Brattleboro came at No. 2 singles, where Alissa Walkowiak won 6-3, 6-3. The most competitive of the other matches came at No. 1 singles as Brattleboro's Annie Takacs fell 6-4, 1-6, 3-10.
Lacrosse
• The Brattleboro boys opened the season with three straight wins, but two losses last week dropped the Colonels' record to 3-3.
On April 24, Brattleboro dropped a 9-8 decision at Woodstock. Two days later, Conner Ladabouche scored six times as Rutland defeated the Colonel boys, 16-8.
Senior bowling roundup
• The fall-winter season of the Brattleboro Senior Bowling League ended last week with Team 2 and Team 10 (both 49-31) sharing first place honors. Team 4 (46-24) finished in second place, followed by Team 5 (both 45-35), Team 8 (46-36) and Team 3 (41-39), Team 9 and Team 7 (both 40-40), Team 6 (39.5-49.5), Team 1 (36.5-43.5), and Team 11 (32-44).
Debbie Kopla had the women's high handicap game (268), while Pam Prouty had the high handicap series (693). Jerry Dunham had the men's high handicap game (270), while Bob Wistrom had the high handicap series (707). Team 11 had the high team handicap game (966) and series (2,647).
In scratch scoring, Warren Corriveau Sr. (638), Robert Rigby (647), and Dunham (691) all had a 600-plus series. Corriveau had a 203 and a 255 game, while Rigby had a 256 and a 210, and Dunham had a 257.
Kopla (505), Josie Rigby (558), and Bunny Fogg (502) were the women with a 500-plus series, while Marty Adams (585), Charles Marchant (572), and Duane Schillemat (561) were the men in the 500 club.