HAVERHILL — Warming up on the side of the field for her first start of the softball season, Ilene Rickard lost a couple pitches that wound up crashing atop the Methuen dugout.
Once the Ranger junior found the zone, however, she quickly quieted the home team bats.
With Rickard striking out nine over her five innings and Ari Baez and Kiele Coleman doing the heavy hitting at the plate, Methuen won its second straight with a 9-0 victory over Haverhill.
Rickard allowed a one-out double in the second to Samantha Neal, who was stranded at third and would be the only threat against the Methuen starter. The only other Hillies to reach base were in the fourth via Rickard’s only walk and the fifth on Methuen’s only error.
“My curveball was working phenomenally today,” Rickard said. “I worked with my pitching coach Lauren (Otto) earlier this week on it. and she helped me fix my change-up in the middle of the game because it was looking iffy in the beginning. But we got that working and between those two (pitches) it was a good game.”
In one stretch, Rickard struck out five of six batters — four of them looking — including all three in the third.
“That’s common at times,” said Rickard, who caught six of her nine strikeout victims looking. “It definitely is when my pitches are breaking really nice like they were today.”
Methuen scored a pair in the second on a Brooke Tardugno fielder’s choice that plated Lea Lynch, who had doubled for the first of her three hits, and an RBI single by Kiele Coleman. Back-to-back fourth-inning singles by Tardugno and Coleman, who drove in three on her three hits, provided a five-run lead.
Baez finished off the scoring by blasting the first pitch she saw in the sixth over the left-field fence with the bases loaded for the first grand slam of her career.
“I had to be disciplined and hold my hands back,” Baez said. “I’m just looking to help my teammates score and make sure everyone does the best they can all the way around.”
A solid Ranger defense is built around veterans at third (Baez), short (Tardugno) and second (Coleman), and they each made sharp plays against Haverhill.
“Obviously, Ari, Brooke and Kiele have played a lot together,” Methuen coach Jason Smith said. “With Colleen (McNamara) being the new first baseman, there’s a learning curve … But they have a lot of range. They’re able to get to some balls that other infielders wouldn’t get to. The pitchers love them.”
The Hillies threatened in the sixth with three consecutive singles against sophomore reliever Jess Votour, who escaped the jam with a ground ball before striking out two of the four batters she faced in the seventh.
With a new coach and only one senior in the lineup, Haverhill should expect some growing pains.
“Right now, we need to get our bats going a little quicker, a little faster,” said first-year coach Hayley McCarthy. “That’s what’s getting us right now. We’re not executing the way I’d like but you have to take small steps. But we definitely have some great leadership on this team. Everyone is an underclassman, so it’s a building year for sure.”
Methuen 9, Haverhill 0
Methuen (9): Brooke Tardugno ss 5-1-1, Kiele Colean 2b 5-0-3, Tyanais Santiago cf 4-1-, Bella Monsanto lf 3-0-0, Chantell Chirwa pr/rf 0-1-0, Colleen McNamara 1b 3-1-0, Ari Baez 3b 4-2-2, Adriana Delaney rf 2-0-0, Delaney McNamara rf 2-0-1, Lea Lynch dp 4-2-3, Ella Hayes c 2-0-1, Bella Medeiros pr/c 1-1-0. Totals 36-9-12
Haverhill (0): Molly Tabb rf 4-0-0, Cayla Irwin p/3b 3-0-0, Jamieson Pearl ss 3-0-1, Samantha Dion lf 2-0-1, Samantha Neal 2b 3-0-2, Kaelyn Mazzaglia cf 3-0-0, Hannah Minnis 1b 3-0-0, Francesca Purdy c 2-0-0, Gretchen Fieldhous 3b/c 3-0-0, Sydney Stocks p 1-0-0
RBI: Baez 4, Coleman 3, Tardugno 2
HR: Baez (three on in sixth)
WP: Ilene Rickard (5 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 9 K), Also: Jess Boutour (2,3,0,0,1,3); LP: Irwin (3,7,5,4,0,1). Also: Stocks (3,5,4,4,2,1)
Methuen (2-0): 0 0 2 3 0 4 0 — 9
Haverhill (0-2): 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 0