AMESBURY — Of course, this was the ONE day that the Amesbury scoreboard wasn’t working.
Of all the days over the past 15 years.
Jay Santomassino is in his fifth season coaching Georgetown softball, and when he took the job, he had heard of the horror stories the program had suffered through against powerhouse Amesbury over the past two decades. He then had to look at that scoreboard himself — sitting just beyond the fence in right field — and watched as it displayed an 11-0 blowout in 2019, a 13-0 beatdown in 2021, and a 17-0 thumping in 2022. Heck, two years ago when the Royals “only” lost 9-0, his players snapped pictures of that scoreboard as a momento.
“They wanted to show everyone that they didn’t get mercy-ruled,” laughed Santomassino reminiscing on that day.
But this spring, a new power is rising.
On Wednesday morning, if that darn scoreboard would have been working, it would have shown a similar score of the past two decades, but with the teams reversed. The cleat is on the other foot this year, and Georgetown released 15 years of frustration to earn its first victory over Amesbury since 2010 in emphatic fashion, 13-0.
“We’ve been waiting to beat them for a while now,” said junior pitcher Maddie Grant. “I’m happy that it happened, and we were definitely ready this year to beat them. We’re expecting a really good year, so we knew this was our chance.”
You could definitely see that this was a possibility.
Amesbury has of course dominated in softball since the late 80s, winning State Championships in ‘88, ‘89, ‘97, ‘00 and most recently in ‘22 — while making a handful of other appearances. Then when it comes to the Cape Ann League Baker Division, the program has claimed 11 straight titles dating back to 2013 (no season in 2020 due to COVID). But this spring, the Redhawks (2-3) are a young group with only two seniors, trying to replace a mountain of talent of the last few years that is now starring in the college ranks.
Georgetown, however, is the exact opposite.
The Royals (7-1) have a strong core that has been growing together for the past few years, and the scary part is that they’re all still juniors or younger. And after making a run to the Division 5 state championship game last spring, the Royals came into this season a talented, confident bunch that is not only ready to break that 11-year Baker streak, but get right back to playing on the final day of the MIAA softball calendar.
“We’re really confident and we’re just trying to keep it rolling,” said Grant. “Our one loss was to a really good Gloucester team, and we were in that game until the end. So as long as we keep our confidence level up and keep the momentum flowing for the rest of the season, we’ll keep doing well.”
Wednesday morning, Georgetown looked the part of a state title contender.
It started right away, when the Royals plated three in the top of the first inning thanks to RBI-singles from Jenna Johnson (3-for-5, 5 RBI) and Maddie Cirone, and an RBI-walk drawn by Cora Robinson. Another RBI-single from Mia Girard (3-for-5, 3 RBI) added another run in the second, and the Royals broke the game open with a four-run top of the third. Talya Mariani crushed a two-run single followed by an RBI-single from Girard to make it 8-0, then the Royals would add two more in the fourth thanks to a double from Ava Fair and a single from Johnson.
“Goal No. 1 is that Baker Division,” said Santomassino. “There’s certain steps this year before the playoffs start, and obviously that first step is beating Amesbury and winning that Baker Division title. They have a two-year window to do this, we’ve got eight juniors and two sophomores. But the confidence they have from last year, they know that they can play with anybody.”
And as it turns out, Grant had plenty of support after that first half inning.
The fourth-year starter was dominant with 15 strikeouts, carrying a no-hitter into the fifth inning before allowing two bunt singles to end the game. She hit 400 career punchouts on the dot last week against Gloucester, and now in two games since is already up to 430.
“Maddie is just throwing so well,” said Santomassino. “She’s throwing just as well as any of the top girls in the league. Since we made the move to Ellie Barbarick behind the plate after our first playoff game last year, those two have been excellent. They have great chemistry and are a great combination. Ellie is a force back there, and Maddie has been lights out.”
Girard would blast another RBI-single in the sixth inning for Georgetown, and Johnson would smack a two-run single in the seventh to wrap up the scoring.
Meanwhile for Amesbury, leadoff hitter Hope Shanahan (2-for-4) showed off her track speed with those two bunt singles to go along with four stolen bases on the day. The Redhawks welcomed back sophomore pitcher Sofia Le to the lineup on Wednesday, who will split time in the circle with Alex Donnell.
“Georgetown is a really good team,” said Amesbury coach Nicole Gadsby. “We’ve all sort of watched that group grow together over the last few years, and their pitcher was really impressive today.”
Georgetown 13, Amesbury 0
Georgetown (13): Maddie Grant p 4-4-2, Ellie Barbarick c 2-3-0, Ava Fair 1b 4-3-2, Jenna Johnson cf 5-2-3, Talya Mariani ss 4-0-1, Mia Girard rf 5-0-3, Cora Robinson 2b 4-0-0, Maddie Cirone 3b 5-0-2, Brooke Thompson lf 3-1-0. Totals 36-13-13
Amesbury (0): Hope Shanahan cf 4-0-2, Sofia Le p 1-0-0, Celia Tavares ss 3-0-0, Lexi LeBlanc c 1-0-0, Addy Cooper 1b 3-0-0, Alex Donnell p 2-0-0, Katelyn Cronin 3b 3-0-0, Lydia Hunt 2b 3-0-0, Charlote Costigan lf 3-0-0. Totals 23-0-2
RBI: G — Johnson 5, Girard 3, Mariani 2, Fair, Robinson, Cirone
WP: Grant; LP: Le
Georgetown (7-1) 3 1 4 2 0 1 2 — 13
Amesbury (2-3): 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 0