At this point, there’s nothing more that can be drilled in at practice or executed on the softball field that hasn’t already been talked about at length.
Quite simply, Pentucket is as ready as it’ll ever be for the Division 3 playoffs.
The last big tune-up for the Panthers came on Wednesday, when — according to coach Deb Smith — they put together their “best game of the season” to beat rival Newburyport, 5-1. It was a clean game in the field for the Panthers, sophomore pitcher Molly LeBel navigated a potent Clipper lineup with eight strikeouts and no walks, second baseman Nikki Mitchell sprinted to make a diving catch in right field in the bottom of the seventh, and Mel LaCroix nearly leaped the fence in right to rob a home run.
Talk about a perfect time to be playing your best softball.
“The practice before the Newburyport game, we do the same things all of the time between working on our hitting and our fielding,” said Smith. “But one thing we said was that, we’re getting really good at making the routine plays, but we need to make the unbelievable plays. We need to catch those bloopers between second and right and steal those outs.
“Sure enough, in the 7th inning Nikki Mitchell went out to right field and made a diving catch, which helped us end the game. We’re starting to play cleaner and we’re hitting the ball hard consistently, so it’s coming together at the right time.”
Pentucket (15-5) led 1-0 after the first inning, but built a bigger lead thanks to a 3-run second. Mia Bartholomew started the inning with a walk before Ella Agocs laid down a beautiful bunt-single, and Kayla Murphy, Mitchell and Sydney Pichette all kept the train moving with RBI-hits.
Newburyport (12-7) got on the board in the bottom of the third when Emily Meleedy blasted her second home run of the season, but the Panthers added a run of insurance in the fourth. From there, Agocs called a fantastic game behind the plate and LeBel shut down one of the best lineups in the CAL.
“Molly has been on,” said Smith. “She did such a nice job because they’re no holes in that lineup. Newburyport is such a strong, focused and well-coached team.”
And a day later, LeBel hit yet another career milestone.
Exactly a month to the day after recording her 300th career strikeout, LeBel — again, only a sophomore — fanned 14 in Thursday’s 6-1 win over Saugus to hit 400 career strikeouts.
Barbarick hits double-digit HRs
Area softball historians, the call to arms has officially gone out.
When was the last time an area athlete hit 10 or more home runs in a season?
Because on Wednesday, Georgetown’s Elizabeth Barbarick belted her 10th and 11th homers of the year to lead the Royals to an 18-4 win over Manchester-Essex. The 8th-grader — yes, 8th-grader! — went 2-for-5 with her two home runs and five RBI.
Ava Fair went 3-for-4 with four runs scored and three RBI for the Royals (11-7), Zoey Halmen went 3-for-4 with two RBI and Gillien Figueroa drove in a run while going 2-for-2.