PITTSFIELD, Mass. – The Wahconah softball team Thursday rallied for two runs in the sixth inning to earn a 3-1 win over Taconic.
Avery Vale-Cruz struck out 14 to prevail in a pitchers duel with the Thunder’s Rylee Paronto, who allowed just four hits and two earned runs.
Although there is still plenty of season left to play, the game had a playoff intensity between the former Berkshire County League and current Franklin West rivals.
Vale-Cruz said she had to hold her intensity in check.
“I try to make everything seem as small as possible,” she said. “I’m a sucker for big moments. I just knew, especially coming into the last inning, I just had to execute.
“Working with Liv [Wehner], she did a great job behind the plate. She’s the one who helped me with spotting and mixing my pitches all day.”
Vale-Cruz struck out the side twice and ended the game with a swinging strike after Taconic put runners on second and third with one out.
“This was a great example of good Berkshire County softball,” Wahconah coach Dustin Belcher said. “Two good teams. I thought it was good old-fashioned softball. Both teams did the little things well. It was going to come down to who was able to make the last play and get the timely hit or make the play.”
Taconic took advantage of a first-inning miscue to take an early lead.
With one out, Anna Bongini reached on a misplayed fly ball to the outfield. One batter later, Bella MacDonald doubled to left-center, and Bongini raced around the bases to give the Thunder a 1-0 advantage.
Vale-Cruz said her teammates did not let the early defensive mistake get into their heads.
“I think the biggest thing is just letting it go and realizing that we have to score runs to win a game anyway,” she said. “You give them one? Well, we needed one to win the game in the first place, and now we needed two. It’s no big deal.”
For a long time, it looked like one might be enough for Paronto, who allowed just one base-runner through the first four innings.
Ella Quinto got Wahconah’s first hit with one out in the third and moved to second on Lily Robb’s sac bunt. But Paronto got a fly ball to Chloe Wendling at third to end the inning.
One inning later, Wahconah was able to cash in on its next scoring chance.
Olivia Iovieno hit a one-out triple to right field and came home one batter later on Tayar Hickey’s RBI single down the right field line.
The teams went to the sixth tied, 1-1, and Emma Belcher led off the top of the inning by earning the only walk Paronto allowed all day.
She was retired on a fielder’s choice that left Dani Barry at first, and Vale-Cruz’s double to left put two runners in scoring position.
Casey Wilson laid down a sacrifice bunt to score Barry with the eventual winning run.
“Casey Wilson is a very good bunter,” Dustin Belcher said. “She hits fourth for us, so she doesn’t bunt a lot. But I just felt in that moment, we needed to get that run.”
Taconic’s only error of the game, on a ball hit by Elena Iovenio, allowed Vale-Cruz to score an insurance run before Paronto got a strikeout to end the inning.
After going down on three strikeouts in the bottom of the sixth, Taconic threatened to tie the game in the seventh.
Julia Pierce started the inning by working the only walk allowed by Vale-Cruz, and she went to second on Amelia Leasure’s sacrifice bunt. Paronto then singled to left and took second on a throw to the plate that held Pierce at second.
Taconic then hit into a fielder’s choice that left runners back at second and third with two out, and Vale-Cruz ended the game with a strikeout that kept Wahconah a perfect 5-0 this spring.
Despite the 14 Ks on Thursday, Taconic (2-3) continued the hard-hitting that led to nearly 13 runs per game in its first four outings. MacDonald had three of her team’s six hits, going 3-for-4.
“That was probably the best pitcher we’ve seen so far, besides Turners Falls,” Taconic coach Jaclyn Candelet said. “We’ve been scoring runs. We only scored one today, but we’ve been putting the ball in play and had eight, nine runs every game at least.
“I told my kids there’s nothing they can hang their heads about. They hit the ball. They put it in play. They just found a couple more holes than we found.”
Taconic hosts Mount Greylock on Monday.
Wahconah heads to Bennington, Vt., to face Mount Anthony on Friday.
