NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – The Drury softball team Friday put up some crooked numbers early and got a solid performance from pitcher Olivia Perry to earn a 12-0 win over Granby in the first round of the Division 5 State Tournament.
Perry struck out nine and allowed just two hits in a complete-game, five-inning win that sends the 10th-seeded Blue Devils (13-6) into the Round of 16 for the second straight season.
As usual, Brooke Bishop was on the receiving end for Perry.
“She was just chucking good pitch after good pitch,” Bishop said. “Everything was working – fast or change. That’s really all she threw, because it was working so well. And it worked.”
“Liv was spot on today,” Drury coach Michelle Darling added. “She did really well on the mound.
“Brooke and Olivia are amazing together. They’re connected.”
And Perry got all the run support she needed in the bottom of the first inning.
Maddie Saunders led off with a single and went to third on Arianna Rviard’s double.
Bishop then hit an RBI groundout to drive in the game’s first run. Perry singled and scored a run in the rally.
In the second, the Blue Devils tacked on four more runs.
The big blow was a three-run double by Marley Brothers. Saunders also singled to drive in a run in the inning.
The Rams settled things down in the third, keeping Drury off the scoreboard and staying within seven.
And in the fourth, Saunders made two big plays – first ranging to her left for a ground ball and beating the leadoff batter to first and then making a diving stab on a line drive that had extra-bases written all over it.
“That was huge,” Bishop said. “That was electric. That was such a good play.”
Marley Brothers drove in a run with a ground ball out in the fourth to push the lead to 8-0.
And Drury ended the game with a four-run fifth, the final run scoring on an RBI groundout by Perry.
The Blue Devils, who went to the state quarter-finals a year ago, will try to get back there early next week. They await the winner of a Round of 32 game between No. 7 Narragansett Regional (9-7) and Westfield Tech, which Friday won a play-in against New Mission, 13-0.
