Georgetown softball now has a scholarship player on its roster.
On Tuesday, superstar pitcher Maddie Grant announced her commitment to Bentley University at the Division II level. Over the past four years, the hard-throwing righty has been the starting pitcher for a Royals program that has experienced unparalled success, and each season, she’s managed to take her game to the next level.
And now, she’ll get to continue improving her craft in college.
In her social media post making the announcment, Grant wrote: “I want to take the time to thank Coach (Terry) McDonough for giving me this amazing opportunity, as well as my parents and coaches who helped me along the way. #rollfalcs.”
This past spring, Grant was named both a Daily News All-Star and the CAL Baker MVP. The junior co-captain led Georgetown (20-4) to the program’s most ever wins, its first CAL Baker title since 2010, its first victories over the likes of Amesbury, North Reading and Triton in over a decade, and to the Division 5 Final Four. In the circle she had a 1.24 ERA with 257 strikeouts in 135.2 innings pitched, and at the plate she hit .554 (46-for-83) with 51 runs scored, 20 RBI and 5 home runs out of the leadoff spot in the order.
Grant took over as Georgetown’s starting pitcher on Day 1 as an 8th-grader four years ago, and hasn’t looked back since. As a freshman she helped Georgetown break an eight-year long playoff drought, then as a sophomore in 2024, she led the Royals on a magical run to the Division 5 state championship game. The program fell to state superpower Turners Falls in both the 2024 title game and this past season’s semifinal, but will return the bulk of its roster — Grant included — and be a championship favorite come next spring.
Grant will enter her senior year with 583 career strikeouts.
Kingsbury an All-StarIf this summer was any indication, then Hunter Kingsbury
will be taking on a much larger role as a sophomore for the Bryant University baseball team next year.
The Newbury native recently finished up an extremely productive stint with the Vermont Lake Monsters of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League. Across 53 total games this summer, Kingsbury finished as a top-10 hitter in the league slugging .306 (60-for-196) with 28 RBI, 8 doubles, 4 triples and 2 home runs. The 6-foot-2 outfielder and former Governor’s Academy star led the Lake Monsters to the FCBL playoffs, where across three games in a series loss to the New Britian Bees he went 5-for-13 (.385) with two runs scored and an RBI.
What more, Kingsbury was also named an FCBL All-Star, as for the first time ever the league got to hold its All-Star game at Polar Park in Worcester — home of the Red Sox triple-A affiliate. Kingsbury played for “Team Hearts” during the game, and went 3-for-4 with a run scored, an RBI and a stolen base.
Francoeur in a groove
In late June, like we reported, Chris Francoeur made history.
The 26-year-old Amesbury native and PGA Tour Americas pro was back in town playing his home course, Renaissance Golf Club in Haverhill, when he did something previously thought unthinkable. Thanks to the rarest shot in golf, an albatross “2” on the par-5 18th hole, Francoeur broke his previous course record with an historic 11-under par 59.
And as it turns out, he hasn’t missed a cut on Tour since.
Francoeur has made five straight cuts on the PGA Tour Americas circuit, starting back on July 4th weekend when he finished T4 at the Explore NB Open. He followed by posting finishes of T35, T52 and T31, then two weekends ago at the BioSteel Championship placed T14 with a four-round total of 266 (-14).
This season now, Francoeur has made 7-of-11 cuts with three top-10s and a total purse of $40,516. He’s currently 14th in the Fortinet Cup standings with 517 total points, as the Tour has four more tournaments before the Fortinet Cup Championship set for Sept. 25-28.
Finishing inside of the top-10 in the final standings will earn Francoeur total membership to the Korn Ferry Tour — one step below the PGA Tour — for the 2026 season.