SOUTH DEERFIELD — It took an inning for the Athol softball team to get its bats going on Friday against Frontier, but when it did, the runs came fast and furious.
The Bears tallied 13 hits in the opening day contest, scoring five runs in the second inning and tacking on two more in the third to take an early 7-0 lead.
Like Athol, the Redhawk bats woke up late to make things interesting but the Bears kept them out of striking distance to come away with an 11-7 independent victory at Zabek Field.
“To come out and get our first win of the season here was great,” Athol coach Sharon Chauvette said. “We had some people who didn’t decide to come back so we’re low on numbers. We had something to prove and we did that today. It was a great win for us.”
Frontier pitcher Ashley Taylor opened the second inning with a strikeout but hit Kennedy Vaillancourt to put a runner on first. Sam Kenniff reached on an error and Skyleigh D’Ambrosia got on with a single, loading the bases.
Maddi Hermes walked to force home Vaillancourt before Kenniff was picked off at third base, leaving runners at first and second. Kassidy Swan was hit by a pitch to load the bases up for Emma Bacigalupo, who smashed a double that plated both D’Ambrosia and Hermes. Lindsay LeBlanc singled to score Swan, and Sadey Lehtomaki smacked a single to score Bacigalupo, giving Athol a 5-0 lead entering the bottom of the second.
The scoring continued into the third inning for the Bears, with Vaillancourt opening the inning with a double, stealing third and scoring on a Kenniff groundout. D’Ambrosia got on with a single and Swan brought her home with a double to put Athol ahead, 7-0, going into the bottom of the third.
“We’ve been working a lot on hitting,” Chauvette said. “We have an indoor batting cage at Athol so we’ve been lucky to be in there and it showed today.”
Frontier answered with a run of it own run in the bottom of the third. Sophia Pinardi got things started with a double, Melanie Ring singled and Taylor scored Pinardi with an RBI single.
Skyler Steele walked to load the bases and Delaney Fifield reached on a fielder’s choice, with a pair of errors scoring Ring and Taylor. Steele ended up scoring on an error off the bat of Makayla Santos to cut the deficit to 7-4 going into the fourth inning.
“That was a big confidence boost,” Redhawks coach Gary Deane said. “It was nice to see the girls circle the bases. We saw that we can hit the ball, we can run and we aren’t the only ones who make mistakes.”
Athol responded however, as Jenna Bonenfant smashed a solo home run in the top of the fourth to put the Bears back up 8-4.
Frontier cut it to 8-5 in the bottom of the fifth after Hailey Hutkoski was hit by a pitch, advanced on two ground outs and eventually stole home.
Athol was able to put the game away in the sixth inning. Bacigalupo got on with a single, Lehtomaki reached on another base hit and Bonenfant brought Bacigalupo in to score with a single of her own. Lehtomaki then stole home on a passed ball and Vaillancourt grounded out but plated Bonenfant in the process, putting the Bears ahead 11-5.
Frontier tacked two runs on in the seventh. Steele and Hutkoski both reached on singles and then scored off a base hit by Santos. But the hosts couldn’t get any closer.
LeBlanc picked up the win in the circle, striking out nine along the way. Taylor finished with five strikeouts for the Redhawks.
In the end, the experienced Athol roster proved to be an advantage in the opening game of the year.
“We have seven seniors and seven returning starters,” Chauvette said. “I can’t bat an eye at that. We have some young players and fortunately we were able to get them in today which I was happy about. Some of them haven’t seen this speed in a game.”
For Frontier, Deane said he’s hoping to see his young team continue to grow throughout the year but is pleased with what they’ve shown thus far.
“For some girls it was their first [grades] 7-12 game,” Deane said. “We knew going into this season that we would be young. I thought we’d have to do a lot more learning but they’re at a higher level than I thought in terms of learning.”