Williams Softball Rallies Past Middlebury

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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Rebecca Duncan's two-strike, two-out bloop single to center in the bottom of the seventh inning scored pinch-runner Jennifer Hickey from second with the winning run as the Williams College softball team came from behind to edge NESCAC West Division rival Middlebury, 7-6, Friday at Cole Field. 
 
The Ephs improved to 24-6 overall, 7-3 in the NESCAC West, while the Panthers slipped to 13-8 overall, 2-4 in divisional play. The two teams are scheduled to play a doubleheader Saturday back at Cole Field beginning at noon.
 
Friday, Williams found itself down 5-0 heading into the bottom of the fourth inning, but scored four runs -- on the strength of a Casey Pelz grand slam home run - in their half and added two in the bottom of the fifth to take a 6-5 lead. Middlebury rallied for a single run in the top of the sixth when Ali Della Volpe stroked a triple to right field and scored when Emily Moore grounded a two-out, two-strike seeing-eye single to right field to tie the game at six. 
 
The Ephs winning rally in the seventh was started by senior Lexi Curt, who stroked a one-out double down the left-field line off Middlebury pitcher Emily Morris. Mackenzie Murphy's liner to right was caught for the second out, but Duncan battled Morris for seven pitches before blooping a ball into shallow center that found green grass just in front of a hard-charging Della Volple as Hickey raced home withe deciding run.
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Mount Greylock School Committee Votes Slight Increase to Proposed Assessments

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock Regional School Committee on Thursday voted unanimously to slightly increase the assessment to the district's member towns from the figures in the draft budget presented by the administration.
 
The School Committee opted to lower the use of Mount Greylock's reserve account by $70,000 and, instead, increase by that amount the share of the fiscal year 2025 operating budget shared proportionally by Lanesborough and Williamstown taxpayers.
 
The budget prepared by the administration and presented to the School Committee at its annual public hearing on Thursday included $665,000 from the district's Excess and Deficiency account, the equivalent of a municipal free cash balance, an accrual of lower-than-anticipated expenses and higher-than-anticipated revenue in any given year.
 
That represented a 90 percent jump from the $350,000 allocated from E&D for fiscal year 2024, which ends on June 30. And, coupled with more robust use of the district's tuition revenue account (7 percent more in FY25) and School Choice revenue (3 percent more), the draw down on E&D is seen as a stopgap measure to mitigate a spike in FY25 expenses and an unsustainable budgeting strategy long term, administrators say.
 
The budget passed by the School Committee on Thursday continues to rely more heavily on reserves than in years past, but to a lesser extent than originally proposed.
 
Specifically, the budget the panel approved includes a total assessment to Williamstown of $13,775,336 (including capital and operating costs) and a total assessment to Lanesborough of $6,425,373.
 
As a percentage increase from the FY24 assessments, that translates to a 3.90 percent increase to Williamstown and a 3.38 percent increase to Lanesborough.
 
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