Hunt Powers Pittsfield Past Drury

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. -- Allie Hunt Thursday went 3-for-3 with a double, a home run and three RBIs to lead the Pittsfield High softball team to a 10-0 win over Drury at Francis Millard Field.

The Generals (6-1) did most of their damage in their damage in the last three innings, ripping seven hits and cashing in on two Drury errors to build on a 3-0 lead.

“It takes a couple of innings to figure out where that strike zone is and what he’s going to call,” PHS coach Greg Marchbanks said. “They saw that he was going to call that low strike, so started attacking that a little better. And some of the girls at the bottom of the lineup started driving the ball.”

Hunt started the late hit parade with a leadoff double to start a three-run rally in the top of the fifth. Haley Tobin (2-for-3) followed with a single to left to score Hunt, and Emily Koldys doubled to left-center to drive in Tobin and put a runner in scoring position.

A pair of groundball outs plated Koldys to make it 6-0 going to the bottom of the fifth.

In the sixth, Erin Murphy reached on a two-out error, and Hunt launched a homer to straightaway center to make it 8-0.

A leadoff error in the seventh was followed by singles from Giuliana Pierce, Abby Santos and Bella Aitken to close out the scoring.

Pierce also provided seven shutdown innings on the mound, striking out six, walking one and scattering three hits.

“She did a good job moving the ball around and changing up her pitches,” Marchbanks said. “She’s got a good changeup and a fastball she can locate outside and inside. It keeps people off balance.”

For Drury (3-4), it was a fourth straight loss. In three of those defeats, the Blue Devils were shut out.

“As a team, we’re just simply struggling to hit,” Drury coach Chad DeGrenier said after Monday’s loss to Wahconah. “I have no complaints with our pitching and catching. We do make a couple of little blunders here and there, but they’re magnified because we don’t hit. The margin for error just isn’t there.”