Millionaires Edge Hoosac Valley Behind Julieanos' Homers

LENOX, Mass. – Home runs by sisters Evelyn and Grace Julieano accounted for all five Lenox runs in a 5-3 win over Hoosac Valley on Saturday.

 

But while the big hits did the damage, a little patience paid big dividends for the Millionaires in a battle of Division 5 contenders.

 

Hoosac Valley had a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second when Lilly MacDonald drew a leadoff walk and Cassidy Flynn reached on an infield single.

 

Lenox’s Lexi Witherell then stepped into the box and went down, 0-2. She proceeded to foul off the next two pitches, looked at three balls, fouled off a third pitch to stay alive and, finally, walked to load the bases.

 

Hurricanes pitcher Gracelyn Wright (nine strikeouts, two walks), got the next two batters on swinging third strikes to get to Evelyn Julieano at the top of the lineup.

 

Julieano crushed a two-strike offering over the fence in left-center for a grand slam to give Lenox a 4-1 lead.

 

Grace Julieano later added a solo shot to help preserve that lead.

 

While Evelyn Julieano’s fifth round-tripper of the season provided the winning run, the winning plays that set the table were not to be forgotten.

 

“[Witherell is] one of our seventh-graders,” Lenox coach Amy Pires said. “We’ve been practicing having them really take pitches. … We said, if you’re patient enough, it’s probably going to work in your favor. And that’s what she did out there. And she got on base.

 

“We’re really trying to have a lot of our players be patient up there. I think just being too eager can have ill effects. So it worked in our favor.”

 

A big regular season crowd turned out for the Saturday matinee between Lenox (13-0) and Hoosac Valley (10-2), who split their two games last spring with the Hurricanes walking off an 11-10 win in the regular season and Lenox answering with a 9-3 win in a D5 State Tournament rematch.

 

The teams were on course for a late-season battle of unbeatens before Hoosac Valley dropped a 14-10 decision to Pittsfield on Wednesday.

 

But that one loss between them did not take away from the game’s importance.

 

“We’ve looked forward to this game for a while,” Evelyn Julieano said. “We knew that we could compete with them ever since last year. We just needed to bring our bats and bring our ‘A’ game in the field.”

 

Both teams did the latter, combining to commit zero errors.

 

And the pitchers held up their ends of the bargain. Lenox’s Evelyn Julieano and Cassidy Flynn combined to walk four batters – one intentionally; Wright issued just two free passes, both of which scored on Evelyn’s grand slam.

 

After a scoreless first inning, Hoosac Valley drew first blood in the top of the second.

 

Hannah Lord got things started with an infield single. She then stole second and moved up on a pitch to the backstop before scoring on Gianna Witek’s RBI groundout to make it 1-0.

 

Lenox answered by putting the first three hitters of the second inning on base ahead of Evelyn Julieano, who got her second hit of the day, the round-tripper.

 

“I was just looking for a good pitch to drive,” she said. “And just get the runners in, because we needed those runners very badly.”

 

Hoosac Valley got two of those runs back in the top of the fourth.

 

Izabela Tart got a walk and stole second. She went to third when Witek reached on an infield single. And, with runners at second and third, Ashlyn Lamke grounded out to the right side, allowing Tart to score to make it 4-2.

 

Witek then scored on a single by Kendall Moran to get Hoosac Valley within a run at 4-3.

 

One inning later, a Genvieve Lagess single helped Hoosac Valley load the bases with two out.

 

That brought to the plate Tart, who came in with a .707 batting average and six home runs this spring.

 

Pires opted to walk the Hurricanes’ No. 3 hitter, and Evelyn Julieano made the decision pay off with her only called third strike of the game to end the inning without a run scoring.

 

“We love Bella [Tart],” Pires said. “My girls have been playing with and against Bella for years. … She is an excellent player, and we didn’t want a chance that she would get a nice hit or even a home run. So we took the risk, and it worked in our favor.”

 

Grace Julieano gave Lenox a little breathing room with a home run to start the fifth inning.

 

In the top of the sixth, Flynn moved to the circle to relieve Julieano and picked up the save.

 

She gave up a leadoff single to Witek to start her appearance, but Lenox catcher Hailey Armold threw to Evelyn Julieano at short to hang up Witek between first and second. Evelen threw to first baseman Grace Julieano, who ran down Witek to apply the tag.

 

Flynn then gave up a two-out walk but retired the side on a ground ball to Witherell at third. And in the seventh, Flynn sat down the top of Hoosac Valley’s lineup in order to secure the save.

 

In a season that has seen Lenox earn six of its 13 wins via the mercy rule, Pires was not surprised to see the Millionaires respond to the pressure of their closest game of the spring.

 

“We’ve always talked to this players about, ‘One play at a time,’ “ she said. “If there’s a hit, just focus back in, lock in. And we just focus one play, one play. If there’s a runner on, just focus on the player at bat. … I think that helps them get through it, mentally.

 

“I think some of the younger ones, they see someone on base, and they’re like, ‘Oh, no.’ So having them reel it in, take a deep breath, and they roll with it. And we did. We had really great defense out there.”

 

Lenox gets another challenge from a county rival on Monday when it travels to Great Barrington to face Monument Mountain.

 

Hoosac Valley will look to get back in the win column on Monday when Mount Everett visits Russell Field.