Busy Spring For Lady Hornets
By Laurie-Jean B. Gauthier
 

 

In their first home game of the season on April 24, the Lady Hornets faced their neighbors, the Lady Rockettes from Rochester. Rochester upended the Hornets in the seventh, first by cracking the bats and second by making some definitive defensive plays that earned them the victory that had Whitcomb suffering the "agony of defeat.’

D.H. Loss

It was a double "whammy" for Whitcomb as the Twinfield Lady Trojans earned the sweep in doubleheader action on April 26, with an 11-0 shutout in the first contest and a 5-3 second game finale.

The Hornets only managed six hits and one walk in the shutout while Twinfield got a triple from Jocelyn Batchalder and a double from Hillary Light. Teammate Paige Ibey was 2-for-4 in the game. Molly Taylor had 10 strikeouts, nine walks and gave up six hits in the contest for Whitcomb, while Emily Berkely also allowed six hits but only had two strikeouts and one walk in seven innings.

In the second game, Kayla Potter allowed eight Hornet hits, two walks, and three strikeouts in three innings, before Berkeley returned to the mound in the fourth.

Trojans Batchalder, Ibey, Potter and Stella Leach all had hits for Twinfield while Hornet Molly Taylor, Tia McKenna and Brittany Washburn connected for Whitcomb, with Washburn doubling home Taylor and McKenna, before scoring herself.

But once again the Hornets found themselves out in the cold as Twinfield claimed its second victory of the day.

Win Over Blue Devils

For the second time this season, the Lady Hornets stunned the Williamstown Blue Devils in five innings with a solid 19-4 win, earning the season sweep on Thursday, May 1. Molly Taylor was right on the money delivering her second no-hitter of the season with eight strikeouts and four walks. Williamstown scored all four of their runs in the bottom of the fifth.

Hornet Lark Delaney earned her first varsity hit against the Blue Devils with a double.

Concord D.H.

It was onto the bus for the long ride to Concord on Saturday May 3, as Whitcomb traveled for doubleheader action, and it was worth it as the Hornets claimed both games.

Whitcomb scored five runs and Concord scored two runs in the first frame, as the Hornets led the entire way. Three additional runs in both the third and fourth, and five final runs in the seventh, had Concord trailing, as they added just one run in the second then an additional seven in the fifth for their tally.

In the first game of the day, Whitcomb came up big with 16 runs, while limiting the Wildcats to just 10, while the second outing was much closer at 9-7. The Hornets had the bats cracking for 21 hits combined, which included doubles from Brittany Washburn and Mariah Stearns, triples from McKenna, Delaney and Taylor, plus a Taylor home run, with the triples earning an RBI and the homer being a three-RBIer. Wright had the most hits of the day with six, while Delaney was two-for-two with a single to go along with her triple.

Taylor had 18 strikeouts for the day and Virginia Wortman had five for the Hornets.

Loss to SoRo

In a very close contest, it was the D-III South Royalton Royals over the Hornets on Tuesday, May 6, as the Hornets fell on the road, 4-2.

Whitcomb’s bats were busy, but unfortunately for them, so were the Royal fielders.

The Hornets never made it on base the first 12 at-bats, as they split for six outs at first and six strikeouts against their hosts.

South Royalton scored two runs in the third, when Logan Russell singled on and Rachael Noyes walked, and both crossed the plate off an Emily Brock two-RBI fielder’s choice that also caught Jane Manbury out at third.

In the fourth following two strikeouts, a Logan Russell pop to short plated Mary Dumville, who walked to get on base. Noyes doubled on, but was left stranded when Manbury was tossed out at first.

With the Royals leading three-zip, Whitcomb needed something good to happen in the fifth. A Taylor single to left finally put the Hornets on base, and a steal moved her over to second, followed by a McKenna sacrifice tap that moved Taylor into scoring position. A wild pitch allowed Taylor to steal home for the first Hornet run. Brock matched the run, with a home run to right field that put the Royals with a comfortable 4-1 lead.

Taylor singled in the seventh and scored when McKenna bunted her in, but that was all the Hornets could muster, as they fell to their hosts. Taylor had nine strikeouts, Brock had seven in the contest. Taylor allowed six walks, while Brock did not allow any.

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