Wells, Warren Lead Wahconah at Mount Greylock

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- Jess Warren and Abby Wells combined for six hits and five runs batted in Thursday as the Wahconah softball team defeated Mount Greylock, 11-0.

 

Warren had arguably the biggest hit of the day -- a two-run home run to center field to give her team a first-inning lead. Wells had the biggest offensive day of anyone, going 4-for-4 with a triple and three runs batted in as Wahconah earned its first win of the young season.

 

With two out and Wells standing on third base in the first inning, Warren socked a round-tripper over everyone’s heads to help Wahconah erase the memory of Tuesday’s season-opening loss to Pittsfield.

 

“We needed something coming off the game the other day,” Wahconah coach Dustin Belcher said. “I thought we needed to score first. That was one of our keys today. We were still kind of questioning ourselves coming in.

 

“To have Jess do that kind of eased everybody. Now we'll hopefully build off of this.”

 

It stayed a 2-0 lead through four innings behind the pitching of Allie Borowsky, who finished with seven strikeouts and scattered seven hits in a complete-game effort.

 

The Mounties (0-2) got a hit in each of the first three innings and two hits in the fourth to load the bases with one out.

 

Borowsky bore down, getting out No. 2 on a comebacker to the circle and the third out on a swinging strike.

 

“We're looking for that timely hit,” Mount Greylock coach June Blake said. “We had runners in scoring position in several innings. And we couldn't put the hits together and score some runs.”

 

Buoyed by Borowski’s performance in the bottom of the fourth, Wahconah started the fifth by putting its first six batters on the basepaths.

 

All six scored in the rally, which started with a Kelly McMahon double down the line in left and included triples by Wells and Emma Parkington.

 

The rally, which was helped by three Mount Greylock errors, made it 8-0. And Wahconah tacked on three more in the sixth thanks largely to a two-run single by Warren.

 

Wahconah collected 11 hits from six different players and got good at-bats throughout the lineup -- a stark contrast to Tuesday, when the bottom of the lineup went 0-for-7 with seven strikeouts.

 

“The bottom of the order really came through today and had some big at-bats,” Belcher said. “Just a total team effort. I was happy with the whole thing top to bottom, start to finish.”

 

And Blake was not totally displeased with the performance from the Mounties, who got two hits from Taylor Cornell and four Ks from pitcher Fiona Kelley, who allowed just three earned runs.

 

The Mounties will have to figure out a way to string together hits, which has not been easy in a pair of shutout losses to start the season against Taconic and Wahconah and does not figure to get any easier Saturday when Mount Everett comes to call.

 

“Overall, I'm not terribly upset with our performance,” Blake said. “I'd like to see us do more offensively. I think if we do score a couple of runs, that game goes a little differently.

We had some opportunities.

 

“I think there are a bunch of good pitchers in this league, and we have to come up and have our 'A' game every time we step on the field. So we'll go and prepare for our next game. The Berkshire County League isn't easy. We're going to face a battle every time we step on the diamond.”

 

Wahconah goes out of league play Friday when it hosts Bennington, Vt.’s, Mount Anthony Union.