It was a nice weekend for Woodstock Academy coach Jay Gerum.
His softball team put together a pair of nice wins to finish off last week.
The Centaurs downed Bristol Central at home April 28, 5-2, and handed Ledyard a 2-0 loss on the road April 26.
“They were very good wins because both teams have good pitchers and are solid teams,” Gerum said.
The Centaurs raised their record to 5-4April 28 with the win over the Rams.
Bristol Central jumped out on top, 1-0, in the first inning.
But The Academy responded with three runs in the bottom of the inning.
Hannah Burgess, who came into the game with a .577 batting average, slapped a single.
It was the first of her three hits on the day.
She missed hitting for the cycle by only a triple.
“I know, right,” Burgess laughed when asked about the cycle. “I’m really happy. I’m seeing the ball well and hitting it. That’s all you can ask for.”
Naomi Rivard reached on an error and both runners advanced on a ground out. Casidhe Hoyt then sent a fly ball to center which scored Burgess, Rivard scored when the outfielder misplayed the ball and Hoyt safely cruised into second base. She came around on a ground out by Hannah Chubbuck to put the Centaurs up, 3-1.
Burgess made it 4-1 in the second inning all by herself when she poked a fly ball over the top of a drawn-in defense for a solo homer.
“She’s in that lead-off spot because she is a great slapper, but it’s tough to defend her. She can lay down the bunt and you don’t know it’s coming. She can put a slap into a gap. She can shorten a slap into a slow roller and she can take it yard like she did (Saturday). She works so hard, non-stop, year-round. She’s just an unbelievable hitter. There is almost nothing you can do. You hope she misses,” said Gerum.
The Centaurs added one more in the third when Hoyt singled and scored on a Heather Converse base hit.
“It was a really great win,” Burgess said. “We’ve suffered a few tough losses the last few days so this was a really good confidence booster for the week coming up.”
Gerum was also happy with the non-conference victory.
“Bristol Central is a solid team and plays some of the best in Connecticut. They had some close game against some teams ranked in the top of the state like Maloney (a 9-8 loss for the Rams). All of their games against some of the top-ranked teams in the state have been close games. They have a good team so pulling out a 5-2 win against them is pretty big,” Gerum said.
The Centaurs had suffered losses in two of their last three games coming into the Ledyard game on Thursday, but remedied it with a little small ball.
The Centaurs didn’t get a lot of hits, but what they did get, they put to good use.
In the fifth inning of a scoreless game, Julianna Nuttall got things going with a 1-out single. Camille Corrado came on to courtesy run for the catcher and moved all the way to third on a sacrifice bunt by Haley Armstrong who also reached safely on the play.
Corrado and Armstrong then successfully executed a double steal with Corrado scoring on the play.
Armstrong moved to third on a slap single by Burgess and came around on a successful suicide squeeze by Rivard.
The Centaurs also sparkled defensively in the game.
The Colonels were able to load the bases with no outs in the bottom of the sixth against winning pitcher Hannah Wotton. Gerum went to freshman Mackenzie Leveille who struck out the first batter she faced.
Armstrong followed with what could have been the game-saving play for the Centaurs. She caught a fly ball in right-center field and threw home to nail the runner at the plate.
“We had to play stellar defense, which we did, and manufactured runs – we found a way and did it. When you get to tournament ball, games get tighter and you have to scratch for runs. We showed we could do that,” Gerum said.
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director

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