Newton North ends title wait
BEVERLY — Through the disappointment of losing in the Division 1 North final last year, to the upsand-downs of this spring’s regular season, the Newton North softball team has always stuck together.
The Tigers’ perseverance finally paid off against Billerica in yesterday’s sectional final at Endicott College — it just took longer than expected.
Behind a masterful 14-strikeout performance by senior pitcher Madison Schaefer and a walkoff RBI single from classmate Elizabeth Wu, third-seeded Newton North defeated No. 12 Billerica, 2-1, in eight innings.
The Tigers will play South champion Milford in the state semifinals tomorrow night (7) at Taunton High.
“This was something that has been our goal since the beginning of the season, and to finally win in this game was huge for our program,” North coach Lauren Baugher said. “We’ve been (in the sectional final) a bunch of times, so to be able to win it was awesome.”
With the game tied 1-1 after seven innings, Schaefer retired the Indians in order in the top of the eighth before North senior Caroline Bass led off the bottom half with a double to left-center. And with one out, Wu laced a clean single to left to score Bass, setting off the Tigers’ long overdue celebration.
“My seniors really stepped up,” Baugher said, “but this was a total team win.”
Schaefer and Newton North (21-3) fell behind 1-0 in the top of the first when Billerica’s Ashlie Jones led off with a double and came around to score on a throwing error. But the Tigers came back against Indians starter Katelyn Grant in the last of the third on an RBI groundout by Wu.
Billerica (15-9) advanced runners to second base in both the fourth and fifth but failed to score against Schaefer, who went on to retire 11 of the final 12 batters she faced.
“This team has been one of the best teams I’ve ever coached,” Baugher said. “I am really proud of the girls.”
Dracut 12, Swampscott 5— It was a not a question of if, but rather when the Middies bats would wake up during this Division 2 North final.
Trailing 3-1, with two outs in the last of the fourth inning, secondseeded Dracut sent the next nine batters to the plate and scored seven runs on the way to victory over the 16th-seeded Big Blue (14-10) at Endicott College.
Dracut (20-4) will play South champion Norton tomorrow (5 p.m.) in the state semifinals back at Endicott.
“We haven’t been hitting the last couple of games, and it started off like that in this game,” said Dracut coach George Roy. “But then it just seemed to click in the (fourth inning), and for the rest of the game we were on fire.”
The seven-run rally started after Swampscott starter Hannah Leahy retired the first two batters on two pitches. But a single from Lauren Byam kicked the offense into gear, with freshman Nadia Saari (3-for-4) providing the biggest hit with a bases-clearing, three-run double that put Dracut up, 6-3.
After Swampscott closed to 8-5 on RBI hits by Riley Lord and Margot Beaupre, the Middies scored another run in the fifth on an RBI single by Nicole Turgeon, and then added three more in the sixth on hits from Sabrina Morse, Michelle Gaudreau and Kayla Tyler.
“The credit goes to the girls,” Roy added. “They are a close team and all we needed was that one spark.”
Swampscott took a first-inning lead on an RBI hit from Leahy, and in the third a run-scoring single by Sarah Ryan and an infield error pushed the Big Blue lead to 3-0.