GROVELAND — It’s undeniably a gorgeous sequence of numbers to look at.
13-0.
An unblemished record this deep into the season that members of the Pentucket softball team dreamt of seeing, but even now that it’s reality almost have a hard time believing. The Panthers, though, believe it or not, are still perfect. Thanks to a Caitlin McCoy bloop single that scored Kallie White in the bottom of the fifth inning, the Panthers were able to “walk off” a season sweep of rival Newburyport with a 13-1 victory on Thursday afternoon.
“We’ve just been working really hard since last season ended,” said senior captain Kayla Murphy. “A lot of the girls play together during club in the summer, and getting those extra reps has really been helping.”
And the secret — much like the Pentucket baseball team — has been the “Youth Movement”
Truly, we all knew the names coming into the year.
There was the aforementioned Murphy, a three-time Daily News All-Star at shortstop, and UMass Boston commit, who came in with a .445 career average and 15 home runs. Four-year starting pitcher Molly LeBel is arguably the best the school has ever produced, and will probably eclipse 700 career strikeouts by the time this season is up. Toss in Mia Bartholomew, Jocelyn Bickford and Sarah Freitas at the top of the lineup, and Pentucket, on paper, had quite the core coming back.
But what nobody could have ever expected … the “kids.”
And it really starts with the in-house names the program knew it had coming back. Michaela Gabardi, Ciara Pennie, Caitlin McCoy and Kallie White were varying starters/contributors as freshmen last year, but have all taken huge leaps forward as sophomores. Heading into Thursday’s game, McCoy was batting .406 with 12 RBI, White was at .385 with 16 RBI, and both Pennie (14 RBI) and Gabardi were closing in on the .300 line.
“It’s crazy,” said Pentucket coach Deb Smith. “Everything is going well, and this is the best hitting team we’ve ever had, 1-through-9 hits the ball hard. I mean, there’s been a couple of games where our 7-8-9 hitters have been responsible for most of our runs.”
Then, there’s the freshmen.
And, whoa boy, have they been a revelation.
First there’s Evelyn Howell, who starts as the team’s designated hitter and hits out of the No. 3 spot in the order. She also came into Thursday’s game batting just under .300, and to go along with 16 runs scored, 12 RBI and 2 home runs.
Then, Pentucket seems to have found the “next big thing” in Kam Bonneau.
This freshman has been simply remarkable, rivaling what Georgetown catcher Ellie Barbarick did in her rookie season as an eighth-grader two years ago (.629, 11 HRs, 35 RBI). Bonneau came into Thursday hitting a ridiculous .667 (22-for-33), and somehow improved on that mark with a 3-for-4 day. The lefty blasted two, opposite field home runs well over the fence in left for her area-high eighth and ninth of the season. She also now has an area-high 24 RBI.
“Nobody could have expected some of this stuff,” said LeBel. “(The freshmen) are crazy. Kam is amazing.”
Added Murphy: “We went into the season knowing we would have good freshmen coming in, and obviously they’ve lived up to the expectation.”
When asked about them, Smith could only shake her head in amazement.
“I knew Kam and Evelyn were good, but I did not know how good” said the coach. “And I didn’t know if they could do it in a varsity game. But they’ve obviously already proven themselves, they’re just unbelievable. They’ve done it for us consistently in so many big situations.”
Newburyport (4-10) would actually strike first in the top of the first inning, getting a single from Isla DeVivo who would later score on a single from Sophie Lavallee. Starting sophomore pitcher Clara Thompson had some good moments in the circle, and provided the final hit of the day for the Clippers.
But from there, it was all Pentucket.
Bonneau’s first blast of the game highlighted a three-run first inning, and the Panthers would score two in the second, three in both the third and fourth, and two more in the fifth to “walk it off.” Then after allowing that run in the opening frame, LeBel would settle down and strike out 10 over her five innings of work.
The result: 13-0.
A beautiful sequence of numbers, but the Panthers are far from done.
“We have a lot of girls who put in a lot of work during the offseason,” said LeBel. “We had a lot of goals coming into the season. Winning the CAL is obviously our first goal, and we’ve been really close for a few years.
“But we want to just keep moving up.”
Pentucket 13, Newburyport 1
Newburyport (1): Bolcome cf 2-0-0, DeVivo ss 2-1-1, Lavallee 2b 2-0-1, C. Thompson p 2-0-1, L. Thompson 3b 2-0-0, Kebler 1b 2-0-0, Gemme c 2-0-0, McCarthy lf 2-0-0, Stick rf 1-0-0. Totals 17-1-3
Pentucket (13): Freitas 2b 3-2-1, Murphy ss 4-2-3, Howell dh 3-0-0, Bickford ph 1-0-0, Bonneau rf 4-3-3, White 3b 4-1-1, Bartholomew lf 3-2-1, McCoy cf 4-0-1, Gabardi 1b 2-2-1, Pennie c 3-0-2. Totals 31-13-13
RBI: P — Murphy 3, Bonneau 2, Freitas, White, Pennie, McCoy; N — Lavallee
HR: P — Bonneau 2
WP: LeBel; LP: C. Thompson
Triton (3-3) 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 — 1
Pentucket (5-0): 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 — 2