The last two local teams standing after the first week of the Vermont high school playoffs are the Bellows Falls and Leland & Gray softball teams. Both advanced into their respective semifinals with dramatic wins.
• No, 5 Leland & Gray and No, 4 Poultney met for the third time in a week on June 2, and the Rebels came away with a 9-5 win in extra innings in a Division IV quarterfinal game.
There was not a lot separating these two teams, which both earned a bye into the quarterfinals. Both of the regular season contests were decided by a single run, so it was not a surprise that this playoff game came down to the wire.
The hometown fans at Poultney's Legion Field thought their Blue Devils had it in the bag with a 5-4 win going into the top of the seventh. Makaila Morse dashed those thoughts with a RBI double that scored Ava LeCours and tied the game to force extra innings.
The Rebels then got hits from Hannah Greenwood, Ainsley Meyer, Ruth Wright, and LeCours in the top of the eighth to score four runs and gave winning pitcher Kristen Lowe enough margin for error to get through the bottom of the eighth and secure the victory.
Meyer and LeCours finished with three hits each, while Morse ended up with two doubles to drive in three runs. With the win, Leland & Gray advanced to the semifinals and a trip to West Rutland to face the top-seeded Golden Horde on June 6.
• Fourth-seeded Bellows Falls had an easy time of it in their opening game of the Division III playoffs on May 31 in Westminster, wiping out the Williamstown Blue Devils, 23-1, in five innings.
Jenna Dolloph went 4-for-4 with a double and three RBIs while Natalie Noyes went 3-for-3 with a pair of doubles and four RBIs. BF put the game out of reach early, scoring four runs in the first and 14 in the second inning. Winning pitcher Izzy Stoodley struck out seven and walked no one over three scoreless innings. Aliya Farmer finished up the final two innings in relief.
Things immediately got tougher for the Terriers when they hosted fifth-seeded Green Mountain in a quarterfinal game on June 3. Stoodley and GM pitcher Brie Lynch had a good pitcher's duel, as Stoodley struck out 14 in limiting GM to three hits and a walk while Lynch struck out 11 and walked three and held BF to three hits.
In a game like this, where both pitchers were mowing down batters, it would all come down to one very bad inning for Green Mountain.
In the bottom of the seventh, with the game tied 2-2, Riley Haskell reached on an infield single and got to second on a passed ball. With Emma Spaulding at the plate, she laid down a bunt to the third base side of the diamond. Haskell broke for third as soon as the ball left the bat and when she saw the ball was bobbled and hurriedly thrown to first base, she came home on the throwing error to win the game.
“I really haven't asked Emma to bunt all year long, because she's one of our best hitters and she's always knocking the ball around,” said Bellows Falls head coach Don Laurendeau. “It was perfect.”
The speed of Haskell and the bunt by Spaulding made victory possible, but Laurendeau credited Stoodley's pitching and the positive attitude of the Terriers in completing the comeback.
GM had a 2-0 lead heading into the fourth inning before the Terriers rallied in the bottom half of the inning. Dolloph singled and took second on a passed ball. Stoodley walked and Emma Thompson followed with a two-run single to tie the game.
“We made mistakes, but we didn't get down,” Laurendeau said. “And we have confidence in Izzy. You know she's going to keep us in the game all the time.”
Next up for the Terriers is the undefeated and top-seeded Oxbow Olympians in the semifinals on June 6.
Baseball
• Bellows Falls coach Bob Lockerby knows a lot about managing a pitching staff in a tournament. With limits on how much and how often a pitcher can be used, a big part of the strategy is whether you use your best pitcher and make sure you win the first game of a tourney, or use your No. 2 or No. 3 pitchers and save your ace for the second game.
In the opening round of the Division III tournament on May 31 at Hadley Field, Lockerby went with Trenton Fletcher as his starting pitcher and he responded with six shutout innings as the sixth-seeded Terriers blanked No. 11 Springfield, 7-0.
BF scored early and often to make it easy for Fletcher. Cole Moore drove in a pair of runs in the first inning with a base hit. Walker James tripled to start the second inning, and he would score on a sacrifice fly by Jamison Nystrom. A passed ball and another sac fly by Eli Albee made it 5-0 Terriers. Jesse Darrell got another run home in the third with a sac fly, and James hit an RBI single in the fourth to complete the scoring for BF.
Thanks to Fletcher's outstanding effort, Nystrom, BF's pitching ace, was preserved for a quarterfinal game against third-seeded Thetford on June 2. While that part of Lockerby's plan worked, it was spoiled when nearby thunderstorms stopped the game in the fourth inning and postponed it to the next day. Under the pitch limitation rules, Nystrom -who started the game for BF - could not pitch when the game resumed on June 3 with BF in front, 2-1
Darrell had to pick up the pitching slack for BF in a nine-inning game that Theftord ultimately won, 5-4. BF was leading 4-3 heading into the bottom of the ninth, but two walks and a base hit loaded the bases for Thetford with one out. Jacob Gilman drew a walk to tie the game and Dempsey McGovern singled to right field on an 0-2 pitch to bring Nolan Pepe home with the winning run.
• Thetford now faces second-seeded Green Mountain in the Division III semifinals. GM advanced to the semis with a 5-3 win of Richford. Eighth-grade phenom Kaiden McCarthy threw five no-hit innings with 12 strikeouts to earn the victory.
• Tenth-seeded Brattleboro lost its Division I first round playoff game to seventh-seeded Rice, 5-2, on May 30. Winning pitcher Evan Haverluk threw three scoreless innings, striking our seven and walking one batter, to get the win. Rice took a 5-0 lead after five innings before Brattleboro's Jolie Glidden broke through with a two-run homer late in the game.
• Sixth-seeded Arlington defeated No. 3 Leland & Gray, 5-2, in a Division IV quarterfinal on June 3 in Townshend.
• Fourth-seeded Stratton Mountain School blasted No. 13 Twin Valley, 30-1, in a Division IV first round playoff game on May 30.
Track & Field
• The Bellows Falls girls finished third, while the BF boys took sixth place in the Division III state meet on June 1 at Knapp Field in Manchester.
The Terrier girls' 4x100 meter relay team of Hadley Gleim, Tela Harty, Nola Sciacca, and Ava LaRoss were winners in 52.90 seconds, while Laura Kamel won the javelin with a throw of 112 feet, 4 inches.
Top six finishers for the BF girls included third place performances for Harty in the 100 hurdles (18.16) and 300 hurdles (52.96), and for Gleim in the 100 (13.34), long jump (15-2.75), and triple jump (30-7). Sciacca was third in the shot-put (29-8.75) and javelin (94-5). Aubrey Mayfield was fifth in the 300 hurdles (56.91) and sixth in the triple jump (29-9.5)
The 4x400 relay team of LaRoss, Mayfield, Eryn Ross, and Sciacca was sixth in 4:47.48, and the 4x800 relay team of Eryn Ross, Lilly Ware, Maisie Twoig, and Hannah Terry were sixth in 13:12.23.
The Terrier boys were led by sophomore Brandon Keller, who won the 110 hurdles in 16.40. Keller was also part of the 4x100 relay team with Gavin Joy, Colby Dearborn, and Justin Draper that finished second in 46.12. Ben Perry was second in the discus (118-9). Riley Tuttle was third in the shot-put (39.25), while Joy was fifth (37-1).
• Green Mountain swept the Division IV state championships on June 2 at Knapp Field in Manchester. The GM boys finished with 92 points, beating out Northfield by a single point and Craftsbury Academy by two points, while the GM girls won with 112 points with second-place Northfield at 108 points. Leland & Gray was seventh in the boys' meet and 10th in the girls' meet.
Eben Mosher led the GM boys with wins in the 110 hurdles (15.87) and the 300 hurdles (42.13), both state records in Division IV. He also won the triple jump (38-11) and javelin at (143-02).
In the girls' meet, GM winners included Autumn Fales (300 hurdles, 53.55), Colie Roby (800, 2:41.37), Kyra Burbela (high jump, 4-09.75), shot-put (29-08.25), and the 4x100 relay team of Grace Wright, Ayla Price, Donnia Blagrove, and Fales (55.02).
John Parker-Jennings led the Rebel boys with a first place finish in the long jump (18-10.75), a second place finish in the high jump (5-7.75), and a fourth place result in the 200 (24.55). The 4x100 relay team of Trevor Hazelton, Jacob Flood, Trevor Stillwagon, and Parker-Jennings finsihed second in 48.17. Jackson Fillion was third in the 400 (59.56), while Flood was fourth in the 300 hurdles (44.61)
Stillwagon and Hazelton finished fifth and seventh, respectively, in the long jump; sixth and 12th, respectively, in the javelin; and eighth and 15th, respectively, in the 200. Fillion and Flood were 13th and 15th, respectively, in the discus. Fillion was also ninth in the 100,
In the girls' meet, Mary Sanderson was the only top five finisher for the Rebels as she took fourth place in the 400 in 1:11.05. She was also ninth in the 200. Avery Hiner was 10th in the long jump and 20th in the javelin, while Lily Litchfield was eighth in the 200 and 13th in javelin.
• The Brattleboro boys finished eighth and the girls finished 11th in the Division I state championships on June 3 at Burlington High School.
In the boys' meet, the 4x100 relay team of David Berkson-Harvey, Jack Cady, Dylan Holmes, and Sean von Ranson, which broke a long-standing BUHS record for the event at the Essex Invitational the previous week, finished second in the state meet in 44.63.
Jacob Girard was second in the javelin (148-11), von Ranson was sixth in the 100 (11.70), and Cady was fifth in the 400 (51.92). The 4x400 relay team of Trevor Gray, Waylund Walsh, von Ranson, and Cady was fifth in 3:37.41.
In the girls' meet, Addison Devault was third in the pole vault (8-5.5), while the 4x100 relay team placed sixth in 56.04.
Ultimate disc
• Trevor Stillwagon scored five goals and blocked six throws to lead Leland & Gray to a 15-2 win over Brattleboro in the opening game of the boys' ultimate disc championships in Townshend on May 31.
Finch Holmes scored four goals while Logan Plimpton, Avery Hiner, Jackson Fillion, Soon Soobitski, Jack Spengler, Ichbaud Clarke, and Trevor Hazelton each added a goal. Hazelton had four assists, while Clarke had three assists.
With the win, Leland & Gray advanced to the quarterfinals to face Montpelier on June 5 and lost, 15-5. The full account will be in next week's column.
Lacrosse
• Tenth-seeded Brattleboro lost to No. 7 Burlington, 13-4, in a Division II first round game on May 31. Cam Cruz, Rowan Lonergan, James Fagley, and Alex Baker were the goalscorers as Brattleboro finished the season with a 4-13 record.
Tennis
• Ninth-seeded Champlain Valley beat the No. 8 Brattleboro boys, 6-1, in a Division I first round match at the BUHS courts on May 30. The only win came in No. 1 singles as Nathan Kim defeated Oscar Andersson, 6-2, 6-2.
A few days earlier, Kim won the state individual championship, defeating Burr & Burton's Nick O'Donnell 6-2, 4-6 (10-6).
• The 10th-seeded Bellows Falls girls were shut out by No. 7 Rice, 7-0, in their Division II first round match on May 30.
Senior bowling roundup
• Week 5 of the spring/summer season of the Brattleboro Senior Bowling League at Brattleboro Bowl on June 1 saw No Splits and Turkeys (both 19-6) finish tied for first place, followed by Slo Movers (18-7) and The Bowlers (16-9), Five Pins (15-10), Stayin' Alive (14.5-10.5), Skippers (9.5-15.5), and High Rollers and Wrecking Crew (both 6-19).
Doris Lake had the women's high handicap game (239) and series (645). Chuck Adams had the men's high handicap game (265), while Eric Brown had the high handicap series (691). The Bowlers had the high team handicap game (910) and series (2,561).
Chuck Adams led the men's scratch scoring with a 632 series that featured games of 257 and 215, while Robert Rigby had a 602 series with games of 212, 201, and 191. Milt Sherman had a 550 series with games of 224, 194, and 192, while Warren Corriveau Sr. had a 540 series with a 202 game, John Walker had a 537 series with a 221 game, Marty Adams had a 534 series with a 197 game, Jerry Dunham had a 515 series with a 217 game, and Wayne Randall had a 502 series with a 190 game. Fred Ashworth also had a 190 game.
Carol Gloski had the women's high scratch series (447) and game (173). Sally Perry had a 160 game.