Mounties Homer Three Times in Win over Taconic
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. – Mount Greylock senior Emma Newberry made her supporters wait a while to see her record career hit No. 100 on Thursday.
Their patience was rewarded.
Newberry drove a ball over the fence in right field to drive in two runs in a four-run Mountie rally in the bottom of the sixth as Mount Greylock beat Taconic, 9-4.
“I really didn’t know when it would come,” said Newberry, who went into the game with 99 career hits. “Because I didn’t know how far away I was. But I definitely did not expect that.
“It was kind of exhilarating. I was really surprised. It was a good feeling.”
Three different Mounties had the feeling of rounding the bases on Thursday. Kami Sweet and Malia Koffi also homered in an 11-hit Mountie attack.
Newberry and Koffi each cleared the fence in the sixth-inning rally that opened up what was a tight ballgame most of the afternoon.
Taconic took leads of 2-0, 3-1 and 4-3 before the Mounties were able to go ahead for the first time in the bottom of the fifth.
The Thunder took advantage of a Mount Greylock error, two walks and a hit batter in the top of the second to score two unearned runs off of Sweet.
Sweet then got one of those runs back with a leadoff homer to left-center in the bottom of the frame.
Audrina Maloney drove in a run with a single up the middle in the top of the third to re-establish Taconic’s two-run lead.
But the Mounties answered right away in the bottom of that inning.
Madi Barber led off with a single, Brodi Rosier doubled and Koffi drew a walk to load the bases with nobody out.
A.J. Pelkey hit a hard grounder to Taconic shortstop Chey Goddard, who came home to catch Barber and leave the bases loaded with one out. Newberry then was hit by a pitch to drive in a run, and Sweet worked a walk to tie the game, 3-3.
Taconic’s Rylee Paronto (six strikeouts, two walks) then got a swinging third strike and a comebacker to the circle to limit the damage and strand three runners.
In the fifth, Taconic’s Ella Stoddard led off with a single to left field and came all the way around on a two-base error. After Mount Greylock intentionally walked the next hitter, Sweet induced a grounder to short, where Newberry grabbed the ball, tagged out the runner trying to advance from second and fired to Barber at first for a double play.
Mount Greylock rallied for two runs in the bottom of the inning.
Koffi led off with a double, and Pelkey and Mila Marcisz had RBI singles to give their team a 5-4 lead.
“I knew they weren’t going away, just from the last game,” Taconic coach Jaclyn Candalet said, referencing an 11-9 Thunder win. “They scored [two] runs in the first inning, we came back and scored, and they just never went away. It was the same thing today. Once we scored, they were going to keep scoring, and it was gonna be back and forth.”
Mia Filiault started Mount Greylock’s four-run sixth with a double down the third-base line.
She was replaced by pinch-runner Cayleigh Kiernan, who moved up on a sacrifice bunt by Barber. Rosier reached on a fielder’s choice when Taconic threw home on a ground ball to catch Barber. But Koffi hit a two-out bomb to left for her team-leading sixth home run of the season to make it 7-4.
“The at-bats were incredible,” Mount Greylock coach Mark Pierson said of Koffi’s day (3-for-3, HR, double). “Two strikes, she kept fighting them off, fighting them off to get hits. And then, the long home run kind of pushed us ahead a little bit extra. It gave us some breathing room, which was nice.”
Pelkey followed up that homer with a single to left to put one aboard for Newberry, who delivered her third round-tripper of the season and 15th of her career.
She and the Mounties (7-3) go to Adams to play Hoosac Valley on Saturday morning.
Taconic (6-4) plays the second of back-to-back games on Friday when it hosts Agawam.