Mount Greylock Comes Back to Top Drury

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – Malia Koffi’s seventh home run of the season could not have come at a bigger moment.

 

The Mount Greylock senior, who has 29 home runs in her high school career, curled a fly ball around the left-field foul pole with a runner on and two out in the top of the seventh Monday to break a 6-6 tie and send the Mounties on to an 8-6, come-from-behind win over Drury at Francis Millard Field.

 

Koffi, who came in hitting .452 this season, struck out twice and was 0-for-3 with a walk coming into her final at-bat, but she put that all behind her in a big way.

 

“I was kind of in a weird slump the entire game,” she said. “So I was just hoping to get some kind of base hit.

 

“Once I say ‘ground ball,’ it just happens to go over the fence every time. So I’m always just like, ‘Ground ball, ground ball.’ And then it goes over. I’m really happy there was one girl on where I could make a change for the game.”

 

Evy Clairmont was that one base runner after doubling to lead off the inning.

 

Drury pitcher Olivia Perry recorded her 10th strikeout of the game and got a ground ball out to the right side to keep Clairmont on base and bring Koffi to the plate.

 

Koffi provided her 20th and 21st RBIs of the season to give Mount Greylock (5-9) its second win in a row and make a winner of Mount Greylock ninth-grader Kaleigh Jaros.

 

Jaros struck out three, walked eight and allowed four earned runs in the complete game effort.

 

She stranded a runner on second base with one out to keep it a 6-6 game in the bottom of the sixth and retired the side in order in the bottom of the seventh.

 

“She’s a gamer,” Mount Greylock coach Mark Pierson said. “For a young, young freshman, she sticks with it. She’s a battler, and she stuck with it great at the end.”

 

Mount Greylock scored a couple of unearned runs off Perry in the first inning.

 

Mila Marcisz reached on an error and Koffi reached on a dropped third strike to start the inning. Both ended up coming home on another error to make it 2-0.

 

Perry helped get one back with an RBI double in the bottom of the first, and Drury took a 3-2 lead with two runs in the second.

 

Jayda Klein singled and Ava Cariddi drew a walk. Both ended up scoring on RBI groundouts from Emily Lyons and Maddie Sauders to put the Blue Devils up by one.

 

Mount Greylock’s Jaros erased that lead in the top of the third with an RBI double to plate A.J. Pelkey.

 

But Drury pulled ahead with three runs in the bottom of the fourth.

 

Three straight walks to start the inning were followed by an outfield error. Ariana Rivard drove in a run with a single, and Sloan Brothers hit an RBI groundout to put Drury ahead, 6-3.

 

Again, Mount Greylock had the answer.

 

And just as it would in the seventh with Clairmont’s double from the eight hole, the rally started at the bottom of the lineup.

 

Kyleigh Cooper, who pinch hit into the No. 9 spot, delivered a one-out single to left field – the first of three Mount Greylock singles to tie the game.

 

Marcisz bunted her way aboard. Koffi walked, and Pelkey hit an RBI single through the left side. Jaros then picked up her second and third RBIs of the game to tie it, 6-6.

 

“I can’t say enough,” Pierson said of his youngsters Clairmont and Cooper. “We had a couple of eighth-graders who got some nice hits. The young kids came up big, which was great. The older kids did what they’re supposed to do. It was a great team win.”

 

Mount Greylock (5-9) goes to Greenfield on Tuesday.

 

Drury (9-7) is at Chicopee on Wednesday.