Balanced Attack Lifts Mount Greylock in State Tourney Opener
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. – Multiple hits from multiple players propelled the Mount Greylock softball team to a 14-2 win over Gateway in the first round of the Division 5 State Tournament on Tuesday afternoon.
Junior Kami Sweet went 2-for-3 with a home run and a double, and classmate Emma Newberry tripled and doubled.
But those heavy hitters just told part of the story as late-season call-up and ninth-grader Mila Marcisz went 2-for-3 with a two-run double in a 10-hit Mountie attack.
Mount Greylock was forced to make some mid-season adjustments when hard-hitting catcher Brodi Rosier injured her arm.
“A lot of middle school kids, I wasn’t sure if they’d be nervous today being it’s their first time in a state tournament, and they all played pretty well,” Mount Greylock coach Mark Pierson said. “I’m really happy about that. And, of course, the older kids led – Kami and Emma had a good game.
“We’ve got a good nucleus. We’re not losing anyone next year, and we’re strong, obviously, for the next few years.”
Sweet was strong in the circle all day on Tuesday, striking out the side twice and finishing with 10 Ks in a game that was called after five innings with rain starting to fall.
“I think she’s getting stronger as the year has gone on,” Piersons said. “We’ve been encouraging her to throw a little more off-speed stuff, just to mix it up a little bit. She got some good swings and misses. You could tell the other team was out in front on some.
“I think part of it is confidence, which she’s been getting, obviously. The more she pitches, the more confident she becomes.”
Sweet’s only hiccup on Tuesday came in the top of the third.
A pair of walks mixed with a pair of strikeouts to put two on and two out for Gateway’s Chloe Govoni, who reached on an infield single that scored one run. An error on the next hitter allowed the Gators to bring another run across.
But that only got Gateway within four runs of the lead thanks to a six-run second for the Mounties.
Newberry’s triple started the six-run rally, which included Kelsey MacHaffie’s RBI double and left the hosts with a 6-0 lead.
In the third, Sweet answered Gateway’s two-run inning with a leadoff home run to center field to make it 7-2.
Mount Greylock then put the game out of reach with a seven-run fourth, batting around for the second time in the game. Marcisz keyed the rally with a two-run double, just her fifth hit on the varsity since cracking the lineup.
After an 11-day layoff between its Western Mass semi-final loss and Tuesday’s State Tourney opener, fifth-seeded Mount Greylock is right back it on Wednesday, hosting Frontier in the Round of 16.
Fortunately for the Mounties, they were not completely inactive during the wait for states.
“Because there’s such a long layoff, we scrimmaged Lee the other day,” Pierson said. “It was nice to get some live at-bats. We scrimmaged them on Friday, so it was nice for us because it was [11] days otherwise.”