Wahconah Shows Improvement in Home Opener
DALTON, Mass. – Elena Iovieno went 3-for-4 with a home run and five runs batted in on Wednesday as the Wahconah softball team evened its record with a 22-2 win over Northampton.
Mariah Barnes earned a complete-game, five-inning win in the circle, striking out nine and walking two.
Wahconah’s offense, which scored three times in Monday’s season opener at Franklin Tech, exploded for six runs in the bottom of the first of Wednesday’s home opener, which was moved to the junior varsity field due to wet conditions on the varsity diamond.
“I feel pretty good,” Wahconah coach Dustin Belcher said when asked to assess his team’s performance. “We didn’t play particularly well the other day at Franklin Tech. But we haven’t really been outside.
“So kind of my message today was we’ve got to be a little bit better than we were the other day. We’ve just got to focus on getting better – 1 percent better every day.”
A Barnes single, a walk, a couple of balls to the backstop and an error brought in the first couple of runs. Then, after Dani Barry drew a walk, Iovieno launched a ball into left and raced around the bases, chasing Barry all the way to home plate to make it 4-0.
Marlee Arnhold singled and eventually scored on Kenadi Arnhold’s sacrifice fly, and Edrie Collins walked and scored to round out the rally.
In the second, Wahconah batted around and scored nine runs in an inning highlighted by Iovieno’s two-run single to right.
Barry hit a two-run double in a five-run third to push the lead to 20-0.
And in the fourth, four Wahconah walks and hits from Kaley and Iovieno produced the last couple of runs.
In the circle, Barnes struck out the side in the fourth with the rare four-strikeout inning after a runner reached on a ball to the backstop with two out. She struck out five straight hitters at one point.
Her only hiccup came in the fifth with the game out of reach. A leadoff walk was followed by a towering RBI triple to right by Haly Doucette-Kaplan, who eventually stole home on a throw back to the circle.
Belcher was satisfied with the performance from Barnes, who scattered three hits in showing that she can help give some depth in the circle. In the opener, Sammie Kaley went the distance, allowing just five earned runs in a 12-5 loss against a Franklin Tech team that went to the state quarter-finals last year in Division 5.
“I think Barnes gave us a good look in the circle,” Belcher said. “The way our season is rolling out – three-, four-game weeks – you’ve got to have multiple pitchers to get through the spring. I think that’s going to be one of the keys. That was a big positive today.
“We’ve got three legitimate pitchers. They’re all freshmen. Marlee Arnhold is another pitcher for us. We’ve got three pitchers who can all get the job done. I think that makes us dangerous come May and June in the tournament, because we’ve got options. Right now, it’s a matter of getting them experience, getting them innings.”
Wahconah is scheduled to go to Mount Greylock on Thursday.