Rabuse, Paronto Earn Athlete of Week Honors

A couple of double threats helped their teams to big wins with their pitching and hitting performances and claimed this week's iBerkshires.com Athlete of the Week honors.

 

Wahconah's James Rabuse started the week by striking out five and walking none in four innings of work in a five-inning shutout win over Ludlow on Monday.

 

On Friday, he struck out one to earn a save in a 6-4 defeat of Mount Greylock for Wahconah's first win on its new home field.

 

Then he followed up that performance with a complete-game victory at Drury where he struck out 13.

 

In the win over the Mounties, Rabuse went 3-for-4 with a pair of RBIs. And against Drury, he was 3-for-4 with four runs batted in.

 

For the season, he leads Wahconah (4-3) in innings pitched with a 3.25 ERA and a 2-0 record and 1.7 strikeouts per innings pitched. And he has a team-best .536 batting average with 10 RBIs.

 

He will put those numbers to the test with three vacation week games starting with Monday's home game against Lenox.

 

The Taconic softball team will be even busier this week with four games on the schedule after the Thunder played just three times in the season's first two weeks.

 

All three of those games were last week, all three were wins and all three featured senior Rylee Paronto in the circle.

 

The capper was the big one, a 6-3 win over city rival Pittsfield.

 

"This is so awesome," Paronto said afterward. "The adrenaline is rushing through my body right now."

 

She gave the Taconic offense a shot of adrenaline with a leadoff triple that led to a four-run first inning at PHS. She went on to double twice, going 3-for-4 at the plate.

 

She also went the distance in the circle, scattering eight hits and allowing two earned runs.

 

Taconic will play its second home game of the season on Monday when it hosts Turners Falls before playing three road games to finish out the week.