METHUEN – A couple days back, Central Catholic softball coach Stacy Ciccolo said, “I hate this week,” speaking of the amazing challenge at hand for her Raiders.
The fact is her pitcher flat out loved it.
Junior Julia Malowitz faced a gauntlet this week, the top two teams in Division 2 — Burlington on Monday and unbeaten Billerica on Wednesday — plus top-10, returning state Division 1 semifinalist Methuen High here on Friday night.
She owned them all.
Eighteen innings. Eighteen shutout innings for three dominant “W’s” by Malowitz, including Friday night’s 12-0, 14-strikeout, five-hit shackling of the Rangers, have Central right where it wants to be — right at the top of the MVC standings in a stalemate with Billerica.
“It’s hard to speak about Julia without getting a little bit emotional, because I just think she works so hard. She’s such a competitor,” said Ciccolo. “This is a tough environment to play in. She did such a good job for us. She put the team on her back early in the game, especially when we weren’t hitting, and she took care of business. The fire, the fight. She’s awesome. She’s one of the best competitors I’ve ever had.”
For Malowitz, pitching against her hometown team on a Friday night could not have been any bigger.
“It was huge. Burlington is always a good team, a good leadup into Billerica. and Billerica was huge because we lost to them the first time. We really needed to pick that up. Then we had to focus on Methuen. We lose to Methuen, and we can’t win our conference. So, now we have the chance to win it.”
For a long time on Friday night, it looked like Central would need every ounce of Malowitz’ mastery. Ranger sophomore Jess Voutour was on her mound game.
An Olivia Moeckel RBI double in the first and Ava Perrotta’s run-scoring single in the fourth had it 2-0 Raiders through four innings.
Central’s offense, which has been chewing up the opposition all spring, finally got to Voutour and reliever Mackenzie Yirrell in the late innings.
It was 6-0 after five, then 9-0 through six when Zaynah Wotkowicz smacked a three-run homer to left.
That cushion allowed Malowitz to finish what she started for the night and the wild week.
Central can now lock up at least a share of the MVC title with a 3-0 week next week. Dracut, Lowell and Chelmsford stand in the Raiders’ way.