Softball Bounces Back Against Barnstable

The Whaler softball team knew going into Friday's game against the Barnstable Red Hawks that they didn't have much room for error and desperately needed a win to keep their state tournament hopes alive. They did just that with a convincing 13-3 victory and head coach Chris Maury said he was pleased with his team's effort and attention to detail.

"I thought we looked very good," Maury said. "We seemed a lot more focused than we did against Sandwich in our last game. We probably hit the ball as well as we have hit it all season. We had a pair of double plays in the game and made the plays we needed to in the field."

Senior Maclaine Willett pitched a complete game, allowing three runs on seven hits while striking out three batters. The Whalers got off to a blazing start in the first inning and took a 4-0 lead into the second following an RBI triple by Jenn Calles, a two-RBI single by Caroline Correia, and Correia later scored on a Barnstable error in the infield on a hit by sophomore Addys Del Rosario.

Nantucket made it a 12-0 game through five innings before the Red Hawks eventually scored a pair in the sixth. Senior Raegen Perry played a big role in that added insurance to what was already a comfortable lead by hitting a lead off home run in the fourth inning and an RBI triple in the fifth inning that brought senior Melanie Bamber home. Perry had three RBIs on the day.

"Barnstable had a solid pitcher," Maury said. "She put the ball over the plate and threw it with some velocity. Our bats just looked really good. But she is a good pitcher and we put a lot of barrels on balls. They made some really good defensive plays to where if they hadn't made them, the game would have been over a lot earlier. We had a lot of fairly hard hit balls that became outs. We will see, but this was a good performance."

The Whalers will host the Sturgis East Storm today at 4 p.m. and travel to Nauset on Tuesday for a game against the Warriors at 4 p.m. Nantucket will need to win three of these final four regular season games in order to qualify for the state tournament.