Howland Leads Blue Devils Past Taconic

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. -- A little belief went a long way for the Drury High School softball team on Tuesday.

 

The Blue Devils lost a 4-1 lead but rallied for a come-from-behind, 7-6, victory over Taconic on the Francis Millard Softball Field.

 

Maya Howland pitched a complete game in the circle and led off a game-winning rally with a triple in the bottom of the sixth inning as Drury won its second straight and improved to 4-8.

 

"The last two games have been come from behind," Drury coach Chad DeGrenier said. "It feels great. They're definitely coming together.

 

"The minute you get a win or two under your belt, you start to feel better about yourselves. You do learn some things losing, but not too much losing. Too much losing is tough on anybody.

 

"Since Day 1, they've always had great attitudes, but when you get down six or seven runs in the first inning, anybody would be in a bad mood or depressed."

 

Taconic took an early 1-0 lead in the first inning on Tuesday, but after giving up an unearned run, Howland settled down and cruised through the first three.

 

Meanwhile, Drury's offense rewarded her with four runs over the first three innings.

 

In the first, the Blue Devils cashed in on a pair of errors for two unearned runs of their own. In the second, Molly Moulton led off with a single, hustled all the way to third when it was misplayed and scored one batter later on Cat Marceau's sac fly.

 

In the third, Jenna Moulton led off with a single and scored on Madi Tarsa's basehit.

 

Taconic's bats came alive in a big way in the top of fourth.

 

After Janee Walker drew a leadoff walk, pitcher Ashley Keegan ripped a two-run home run over the left field fence to make it 4-3.

 

Taconic (3-8) capitalized on some control problems for Howland in the top of the sixth, scoring three runs on on hit to take a 6-4 lead.

 

"I'm proud of the girls," Taconic coach Kevin Harrington said. "They stayed with it throughout the game. A lot of our role players came through and put us in a position to win. We had two or three opportunities to really cash in, and that's all you can ask.

 

"Eventually, we'll keep getting better and we'll find our way through there."

 

Taconic had two scoring opportunities go by the board thanks to balls hit right at Drury infielders for double plays.

 

In the fifth with bases loaded and one out, Drury shortstop Alli Brassard grabbed a line drive and alertly tagged the runner attempting to get back to second.

 

In the sixth, again with bases loaded and one out, third baseman Tarsa fielded a grounder hit down the line, tagged out the runner coming from third and stepped on the bag for the forceout to end the inning.

 

"Our season has turned around defensively," DeGrenier said. "We started where I didn't think we were going to have so much of a problem defenisvely, and we did. And now we're starting to come along."

 

Offensively, Howland legged out a triple to kickstart the Devils' attack in the bottom of the sixth. After Heather Morris' sac fly to make it 6-4, Ingrid Oleson hit a single up the middle, then came around to tie the game when Molly Moulton's single was misplayed in the outfield.

 

An infield single put two on for Brassard, and her groundout to the right side scored Moulton to give Drury the lead.

 

In the seventh, Howland hit the first batter but then retired the next three in order, the last on a ground ball to Brassard, to send the home crowd home happy.

 

Drury will look to make it three in a row on Thursday at Mount Greylock. Taconic travels to Wahconah on Thursday.