Pittsfield Pounds Ludlow in Western Mass Quarters

PITTSFIELD, Mass. -- The Pittsfield softball team Saturday exploded for five hits and seven runs in the fourth inning en route to a 15-3, five-inning win over Ludlow in the Western Massachusetts Division 1 quarter-finals.

 

Jordyn Lummus went 2-for-3 with a double and three RBIs, and Giuliana Pierce struck out six while scattering four hits as the top-seeded Generals improved to 20-0 and set up a date Tuesday against West Springfield at the University of Massachusetts’ Sortino Field.

 

After building a 6-0 lead over the first three innings, the Generals blew the game wide open by batting around in the fourth, when back-to-back-to-back doubles from Britney Perkett, Natasha Shade and Hayley Tobin and four Ludlow errors conspired to put the Lions in a 13-0 hole.

 

“They just kind of settled into the game,” Pittsfield coach Gregory Marchbanks said. “It had been a while [May 30] since we’d played. They started kind of getting into the zone.

 

“As you can see, when they get into to the zone, they hit the ball hard.”

 

One General who needed no time to settle in was Lummus, who came up with the bases loaded in the second and hit a towering shot into right center that brought home three runs to make it 4-0.

 

Her next time up, she singled, stole second and eventually scored on Perkett’s double in the seven-run fourth.

 

Perkett, who bunted her way on and eventually scored on a Tobin sacrifice fly for the game’s first run, went 2-for-4, as did Sarah McMahon. Madison Tobin went 2-for-3 and drove in a pair of runs.

 

Eighth-seeded Ludlow (15-7) came to bat in the top of the fifth staring at a 13-0 deficit and the threat of being mercied but rallied with three runs, not bad against Pierce and Pittsfield, who allowed just 25 runs (1.3 runs per game) in the regular season.

 

Danni Collins got that rally started with a one-out single, and pitcher Julia Annecchiarico had a two-run single to right to keep alive her team’s slim hopes.

 

But Ludlow’s reprieve did not last long.

 

The Generals ended it with two-out in the fifth when Brianna Clary and Madison Tobin came home on Pierce’s single and an outfield error to push the margin back to 12 runs, implementing the mercy rule.