Colby Beré ’18 stepped up to the plate and smacked a high fastball over the left-centerfield fence to bring the score to 3-0 in the fourth inning of Andover Softball’s game against Lawrence on Friday. Beré’s third homerun of the season proved to be the winning run for Andover, which allowed two runs in the fifth inning to bring the final score to 3-2.
Andover’s offense was challenged by Lawrence’s pitcher and talented third baseman, as the team committed many groundouts.
Captain Ravenne Nasser ’15 and Co-Captain Mackenzie Bradford ’15 each batted in one run for Andover in the bottom of the first inning, but as a whole, the team struggled to gain offensive momentum throughout the entire game.
Kristina Haghdan ’17 pitched a complete game, striking out thirteen batters and only allowing one hit in the fifth inning. Lawrence’s two runs were unearned, as they came off of compounded infield errors.
Head Coach Peter Drench said, “We made it more difficult for [Haghdan] by having one bad inning in the field during a game when runs were hard to come by.”
Third baseman Victoria Bergeron ’16 said, “We were only up by one run as we entered the top of the seventh inning on defense, so our mentality was just to get three outs. It really helped that [Haghdan] struck out the first batter, because after that, we all had the confidence in ourselves that we were going to pull through and get the win.
Offensively, it was definitely a slower day for us, but a close game like that is good experience to have as we go into the [Big East] Tournament.”
Andover regained its offensive dominance on Saturday and beat Deerfield 10-0.
Rightfielder EJ Kim ’15 said, “Saturday was a beautiful day. Everyone was really happy to be there. The energy level was a lot higher to start off with, and we came out strong, scoring four runs in the first inning. That really helped build the momentum. The energy was really good on the bench and on the field – we were just cheering each other on, and the communication was overall a lot better.”
Despite playing on a baseball field with a grass infield, instead of a dirt infield, Andover showed power at the plate with a double from Bergeron and triples from Bradford, Haghdan and Sidney Holder ’17. Co-Captain Jen Kaplan ’15 also hit her first homerun of the season over the leftfield fence.
Nasser pitched six innings, striking out seven and giving up three hits. She found her groove early in the game and was supported by sound defense.
Nasser said, “I had a couple pitches that weren’t working, so I was just trying to stick with what was working for me. I threw a lot of drop curves, which forced a lot of groundouts.”
“[Nasser] did what she needed to do, and [Kaplan’s] home run and the other extra-base hits took care of the rest,” said Drench.
Rookie Margaret Bragdon ’18 pitched the seventh inning to close out the game for Andover. She threw only four pitches, forcing two pop-outs to third base and one groundout to second base.
Andover now stands at an undefeated 10-0 record as it enters the final two weeks of its season. The team will co-host the Big East Tournament this weekend with Brooks, as it competes for its fourth championship title in five years.
Editor’s Note: Victoria Bergeron ’16 is a Sports Editor for The Phillipian.
