The Georgetown softball program isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Sure, its taken its lumps against the elites of the CAL like Amesbury and Triton this year. But, even with just one senior on the roster in Ava Ruggiero — and no juniors — these young Royals continue to prove that they’ll be a major factor both the remainder of this season, as well as into the future.
After a seven-year playoff drought, the Royals are now postseason bound for the second straight spring.
A feat they were able to accomplish on Wednesday after a dominant 18-8 win over Ipswich. Gillien Figueroa went 2-for-4 with a home run and two RBIs, and with the victory, Georgetown (9-4) has already qualified for the upcoming Division 5 state tournament via the .500 rule. The Royals made it to the Round of 16 last year, and are currently ranked No. 5 in the division heading into the final week-plus of the regular season.
Freshman Ellie Barbarick went a perfect 3-for-3 out of the leadoff spot with four runs scored, and Maddie Grant went 2-for-3 with three RBIs. Fellow freshman Mackenzie Riley got the win in the circle for the Royals while also going 2-for-4 at the plate, and Ava Fair, Ruggiero and Maddie Cirone each had two hits as well.
Lambert wins marathon tiebreaker for Newburyport
Here’s a match score you don’t see too often in high school tennis.
On Wednesday afternoon, Alex Lambert took part in a true marathon for Newburyport, and simply refused to lose. He ended up winning an epic match at No. 2 singles in a super-tiebreaker, 2-6, 7-5, 23-21, helping the Clippers pull out an eventual 4-1 victory over North Reading.
And for a much-deserved shout-out, Parker Lee was the Hornet who put up one heck of a fight.
But elsewhere for Newburyport (6-5), Lucas Palen earned a 6-4, 6-3 victory at No. 3 singles, and both doubles teams got the job done. Caden Eiserman and Beck Adreliunas were the duo at first doubles (6-0, 6-3), and Connor DeMann and Sam Brickman won comfortably at No. 2 (6-3, 6-3).
Levasseur, Amesbury keep rolling
It went the full seven innings this time, but the Amesbury softball team had little issue building an early lead, and cruising to a 9-3 victory over Hamilton-Wenham on Wednesday.
Once again, senior All-Star Izzy Levasseur led the way. She went 2-for-4 with three RBI at the plate and struck out six over four innings of work before giving way for freshman Sophia Le to finish up the final few innings in the circle. Le did eventually help her own cause with a 3-for-5 day, and both Lexi LeBlanc and Cali Catarius had three hits and an RBI as well.
Amesbury (12-2) is currently the No. 8-ranked team in Division 4.
Georgetown baseball is human after all
It took until May 15, but we can officially say that there are no undefeated baseball teams left in the state.
Georgetown, the last perfect team standing, has gone down.
The Royals tried to rally late, but couldn’t complete the comeback in a 4-2 loss at North Reading on Wednesday. Hayden Ruth (2-for-4) and Jake Gilbo (2-for-4, RBI) helped the team plate a run in the top of the seventh inning to cut into the lead, but the Hornets were able to get the finals outs to pull off the stunner.
Brendan Loewen went 1-for-3 with an RBI for Georgetown (15-1), and freshman Ty Southall pitched five scoreless innings of relief with three strikeouts. The Royals are still a favorite in Division 5, and will look to put the setback behind them when they host Newburyport on Saturday (3 p.m.).
Newburyport softball drops shootout
Manufacturing runs wasn’t an issue for the Newburyport softball team on Wednesday.
The Clippers were rather efficient at the plate, scoring eight runs off of only nine hits. But mistakes in the field defensively proved too costly, and the Clippers couldn’t overcome them in an 11-8 loss to Essex Tech. All told, only six of the Hawks’ 11 runs scored were earned.
Offensively, though, the top of the order was dialed in for Newburyport (10-5). Leadoff hitter Cassidy Bolcome went 2-for-4, and right behind her was Emma Keefe going 3-for-4. Emily Meleedy added a 1-for-3 day with two RBIs, and clean-up hitter Grace Habib drove in three runs off of a 2-for-4 performance.