Latta, Lowell oust Central Cath.
SCHOOLS
Last night was the rubber game between Merrimack Valley Conference softball rivals Lowell and Central Catholic, after the two split a pair of regular season encounters.
Thanks to senior pitcher Courtney Latta, No. 7 Lowell is the team left standing after a 6-0 shutout of No. 10 Central Catholic in a Division 1 North first-round game at Martin Field in Lowell.
“(Latta) pitches unbelievable every time,” said junior Emily Carbonneau, who gave Lowell (15-6) a 2-0 lead in the third inning with a two-run homer. “It makes it fun. … She is reliable, really reliable.”
Latta struck out six of the first 10 batters and finished with eight Ks. She even got in on the offense as she scored two runs including one in the fifth to make it 3-0.
“(Central Catholic) put the bat on the ball and it could have gone differently,” said Lowell coach Robyn McDonough. “On the other side, they had some plays they couldn’t make and we took advantage of that.”
After two scoreless frames, Lowell got on the board as a one-out single from Brittany Mota set the stage for Carbonneau’s tworun shot off Central Catholic starter Niamh Walker.
“That was huge and got everyone going,” McDonough said.
Lowell plated another run in the fifth to make it 3-0, when Latta blooped a single to center and then Mota ripped a one-out triple to center.
Lowell padded the lead in the sixth by scoring three times with two outs. Nicole Capra’s single was followed by an error to put runners on second and third. Latta then laced a ball off the left fielder’s glove to plate two runs. Mota finished up the scoring with a double to score Latta.
“It was very comforting,” McDonough said. “It allowed us to kind of not feel that nervousness (of it being a one-run contest).”
The only real opportunity the Raiders (13-8) got to score came in the top of the fourth, as Courtney Woronka and Abby Latham started the inning with back-to-back hits. Following a Bella Jankowski groundout that moved the runners to second and third, Latta got Sarah Janco to lineout to second and Walker to flyout to center to end the threat.
In other softball tourney action yesterday:
Fallon Marchand’s tworun home run in the last of the fifth gave No. 15 Case (12-9) a 2-1 win over No.18 Medfield in a Div. 2 South preliminary contest.
Alli May struck out seven and also helped her cause with a two-run homer as No. 2 West Bridgewater (192) defeated No. 18 Mashpee, 7-2, in a Div. 3 South firstround contest. Casey Willis added a three-run homer, while Jenna Raphel had two hits and scored two runs for the Wildcats.
Girls tennis
Lexi Dewire, Anna Calame and Alli Burton all won their singles matches with the loss of one game as top-seeded Hingham (210) advanced to the Div. 2 South quarterfinals with a 5-0 win over No. 17 Norwood. The doubles teams of Carly Price-Lulu Pennell and Jacke Vanzura-Rachel Jensen won their matches 6-0, 6-0.
Boys volleyball
Senior captain Noah Kopf led a balanced attack with 17 kills as No. 2 Newton South (19-2) advanced to its eighth Div. 1 South sectional final in nine years with a 25-23, 2512, 25-17 victory over No. 3 Greater New Bedford Voke.