NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – Olivia Perry was dominant in the circle, and the Drury softball offense continued to crush the ball in a 13-1 win over Lenox on Saturday as the Blue Devils improved to 2-0.
Perry struck out 11 and allowed just one hit.
Her offense pounded out 15 hits as Drury scored its 28th run in two outings.
“Everybody hit today, which was really, really great,” Drury coach Michelle Darling said. “Everybody hit. Everybody got in. Today was just working on driving the ball, and they did well.”
Maddie Saunders and Brooke Bishop led the offense by each going 4-for-4 with four RBIs between them at the top of the lineup.
Saunders hit two triples. Bishop belted three doubles.
Eight different Blue Devils had at least two hits, and Drury scored in all but one of the game’s six innings.
After an error and a passed ball gave Lenox a runner on second base in the top of the first, Perry closed the door with the first of her 11 Ks and did not allow a runner again until the fourth.
Meanwhile, the offense gave her all the support she needed with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first.
Saunders led off with a triple and came home two batters later on Bishop’s first double. Bishop then scored on a single to right by Marley Brothers to make it 2-0.
The Blue Devils tacked on three in the third behind an RBI double by Bishop and an RBI triple by Perry.
In the fourth, Lenox’s Evelyn Julieano got to Perry with a one-out double to right-center. She then stole third and scored on an error to make it 5-1.
It was just the second run in three games for the Millionaires (0-3).
“We’re still working on our lineup,” Lenox coach Justin Lenski said. “I think once we get going, we’ll be OK. We were like this last year, too. We had the same kind of product where we were not hitting, not hitting, not hitting, and all of a sudden we just turned the page.
“I think maybe the warmer weather kind of helps us. But I told my players, there’s no excuse. All those other teams have been doing the exact same thing. They’re in the gym, too. There’s no excuses. We’ve just got to work a little bit harder.”
Drury got that run back in the bottom of the inning when Saunders tripled to drive in Ava Cariddi and make it 6-1.
In the fifth, Drury scored five more runs on two hits and two Lenox errors to get the margin to 10 runs.
Bishop led off the bottom of the sixth with a double and came home on Perry’s single. A base hit by Abby Bailey moved her to third, and Rachael Barrows ended the game with an RBI single.
As potent as Drury’s offense has been, sophomore Perry’s pitching might be the key going forward on days when the hits are not coming in bunches.
“Liv was very strong today, not only in her pitching but in her fielding as well,” Darling said. “She took a couple off the shins, but she made plays.
“She’s worked really hard over the winter to better herself. As an eighth-grader, I had her, and she got thrown into a starting position due to an injury. And she’s just worked hard every since. This was the outcome.”
Drury goes to Springfield Central on Monday.
Lenox hosts Smith Voc on Monday.
