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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It’s a tough time of year for high school baseball teams.
The poor early-season weather has pushed a lot of games back and as the calendar changes to May, many teams will be faced with a couple of weeks where playing four or five games will be the norm.
That’s fine if the teams have the pitching to support it. “If you only have a certain number of pitchers that are at the varsity level, you can get some tired arms some times,” said Woodstock Academy coach Brian Murphy. “It’s not that they’re throwing a lot of innings, but it can be a big factor, if you run a kid out there too soon. I have to start developing more pitchers. I hope it’s not a factor. I always tell the kids to manage their arms.”
Murphy said his pitchers also have to stop being a little too kind to their opponents.
“Tired arms or not, we still have to make good pitches when it’s a pitcher’s count. Sometimes, we give too good a pitch on 0-2 and 1-2 to hit and the kids are learning that you can’t do that against good hitters,” Murphy said.
The Academy coach did bring a couple of younger pitchers up April 28, but didn’t need them thanks to the effort of junior pitcher Luke Mathewson.
Mathewson spun a 1-hitter with six strikeouts and his teammates gave him all the support he needed against Ellis Tech in an 11-1, five-inning win.
The win brought the Centaurs back to the .500 mark at 5-5.
“Luke looked good,” Murphy said. “He had a little more snap to his ball. He only threw 59 pitches and that was a huge help.”
The Centaurs scored three runs in the first inning.
Tommy Li reached on an error and scored when Doug Newton also reached on a miscue. He came home on an Eric Preston single and Preston later crossed the plate.
The Centaurs added two runs in the second inning on a Cam Lotter (2-for-3) line drive base hit with two outs.
“Cam is a battler and that broke the game open,” Murphy said.
The Centaurs made it 10-1 with a five-run third inning and then invoked the mercy rule with a single run in the bottom of the fourth inning.
The new rule ends the game when a team owns a 10-run lead in the fifth inning.
“I’m not a fan of the mercy rule. I’ve played on teams and had an AAU team which was down 10 runs in the last inning that came back and won so I’m not a fan, but it worked for us (Saturday),” Murphy said.
Nathan John also had two hits in the win.
The victory salvaged what had been a tough week for the Centaurs.
They lost to Stonington last April 23, 10-7. Down 6-1, the Centaurs tied the game in the fifth. Lotter singled, Luis Miranda was hit by a pitch and, two outs later, Li was hit by a pitch to load the bases.
Newton knocked in a run with a single and Preston cleared the bases with a triple. He came around on a double by Mathewson.
The results were even worse April 24 when Bacon Academy rolled to a 14-2 win over the Centaurs.
The Bobcats scored four in the first, one in the second and five in the fourth, but never brought on the mercy rule because they didn’t own a 10-run lead until the seventh inning. John was one of the few bright spots for the Centaurs with a 3-for-3 performance at the plate including a run and an RBI. Li and Jacob Lavitt both had two hits in the loss.
“I thought we were going to find a way to win the game against Stonington. We just couldn’t. Luke wasn’t sharp in that game and then, we just came out flat against Bacon,” Murphy said.
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director
..
The Woodstock Academy girls’ tennis team is pretty stable.
The boys’ team could still use some work.
The Centaurs girls are off to a 5-2 start after a 6-1 win over Norwich Free Academy April 26.
“That’s pretty good,” said coach Ann Rathbone who presides over both the girls’ and boys’ programs. “It was a rough start with Guilford, but we survived. The match with Waterford was long, but we pulled it out and that has been a highlight of the season so far for us.”
Both of those matches took place before the spring break and the Centaurs were only able to get in two matches last week thanks to the weather.
The Academy also handed Windham a 7-0 loss in addition to the win over the Wildcats.
Top singles player Clara Siegmund is off to a 4-3 start including a 6-1, 6-0 win over Anna Slopek of NFA April 26.
Mari Ruggeri, the No. 2 player, has won five of her seven matches, Elle Chervenkova is 4-3 and Morgan Bassett is 5-1.
The doubles is a little bit more undecided.
Junior Mackenzie Eaton had been playing with classmate Codi Staveski early in the season. But Staveski went on a school trip during break and Eaton partnered with senior Sam Sheldon. The two have been pretty good, winning three of their four matches.
The No. 2 doubles team of sophomore Rachel Holden and freshman Hannah Darigan will be sticking together after winning six of their first seven matches.
Boys are 3-3
The boys are off to a 3-3 start.
David Fleck has moved into the No. 1 spot and has posted a 3-3 record thus far in his matches, the same as freshman No. 4 Riley Douglas. Will Gajewski, the No. 2 player, has posted a 2-4 record while Fabian Meiser owns the only winning record in singles at 4-2.
The only consistent doubles partners have been Matt Tiffany and Tee Bae who have posted a 4-2 record.
“We’ve played some really tough teams and some not so tough teams so we’ve had the expected results,” Rathbone said.
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director
The start of the season for the Woodstock Academy girls’ lacrosse team has been a good one.
The Centaurs came into the game April 28 against Valley Regional with four straight wins to start the season.
“We were ecstatic about that and we still have the goal of making the (Eastern Connecticut Conference) tournament for the first time in the history of the program,” said coach Kathleen Johnson.
That battle begins this week when the Centaurs play league games against Griswold, St. Bernard and Waterford.
The Centaurs did stumble against the Warriors who do possess a talented freshman in Tory Rider. She scored eight goals and dished out three assists in a 17-11 Valley Regional win over The Academy at the Bentley Athletic Complex.
The Centaurs held the lead early and often in the first half when goals were being traded like stocks on Wall Street.
In a span of just 3 minutes, 25 seconds of the first half, the two teams combined for eight goals. Ivy Gelhaus tied the match at three with a goal. The only senior on the squad Madison Brennan scored her second goal of the game and ninth of the season to put the Centaurs up by a goal and Arielle Johnson added her 13th of the year to make it 5-3.
But Rider scored the next three for the Warriors to put Valley Regional back on top.
Emma Green tied it for the Centaurs and freshman Bridget Horst put them up at the half, 7-6, with one of her three goals in the game.
The Warriors scored the first five goals of the second half to steal the momentum from the Centaurs (4-1).
The Centaurs have also been very good on the draw this season, Valley Regional tended to dominate in that facet of the game in the second half.
“We’ve had a lot of success on the draw, but we didn’t have as much draw control,” said Kathleen Johnson.
Earlier in the week, the Centaurs downed Ledyard, 13-7. Horst and Arielle Johnson each scored four goals in the win while Brennan added two and freshman keeper Kileigh Gagnon made nine saves.
Boys adjusting
It’s never easy when coaches change.
It’s even tougher when those coaching changes are more the rule than the exception.
Mike Noel is hoping to change that culture at The Woodstock Academy.
“In listening to the players, the constant change is the big hurdle to get over. There is no consistency and we need to get back to that. We’re working on that. I want these players to know that I’m going to be around. I’m not going anywhere. I live in this town, I’ve got kids in this town and we’re going to build a program here,” said Noel.
It won’t happen overnight.
After a 9-4 loss to Ellington April 26, the Centaurs dropped to 2-4 on the season.
“Two of those losses, I’m a little disappointed in,” Noel said. “I think we’re better than that. I think this was a typical game for us and there is no reason why we can’t compete in a game like this every time.”
The Centaurs competed with the Purple Knights pretty well for the first 24 minutes.
Liam McDermott put the Centaurs on the scoreboard first, taking a pass from Guerin Favreau to make it 1-0 just 3 minutes, 13 seconds into the game.
Ellington tied it seven minutes later on a tally by Steven Moller, the first of his three goals in the game.
The Academy forged ahead on a Favreau tally which came early in the second quarter.
Ethan Holcomb countered Moller’s second goal with his 10th of the season to put the Centaurs up, 3-2.
But the Purple Knights forged ahead on a pair of goals before Ethan Haass tied it again with 3:30 left in the first half.
Ellington took the lead into halftime when freshman Dan Broding scored with 1:09 left.
“We came out strong and we need that for four quarters,” Noel said.
Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.
The Purple Knights (5-3) scored the first three goals of the second half, two by Hunter Neal, who finished with four tallies. Ellington also changed up its defense, going from zone to man, that bothered the Centaurs a bit.
Noel said most of the trouble, however, was self-inflicted.
“We stopped moving the ball and you have to move the ball in this game,” Noel said. “You have to move the ball, cut to the hole and you have to find the open guy. We weren’t doing that. Too many people were overthinking it. We had underhand passes, no discipline, you can’t do that.”
The Centaurs were outshot 19-4 in the third quarter, but rebounded to outshoot the Purple Knights, 12-3 in the final quarter.
Nothing, however, got past Ellington keeper, Alex Joslin.
“He was very good. He has a good stick. He was on top of everything. I can’t say enough praise about him,” Noel said.
Carson Hadley made six saves for the Centaurs.
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director
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