ADAMS, Mass. – Marley Brothers turned on a pitch to open the second inning and turned around her fortunes at the plate in leading the Drury softball team to a 14-2, five-inning win over Hoosac Valley on Thursday.
Brothers belted a leadoff inside-the-park home run down the right field line to give the Blue Devils a 2-0 lead and ended up going 3-for-for with a homer, a double and four RBIs as Drury earned its first win over the Hurricanes since 2018 and improved to 6-0 this spring.
“I was really down on my hitting for a while, and that really boosted my confidence,” Brothers said.
She upped her batting average to .250 with the 3-for-4 day at the plate and contributed to a nine-hit Drury attack.
Her round-tripper touched off a seven-run second inning and gave Olivia Perry (eight strikeouts, two walks) all the offensive support she needed.
Drury coach Michelle Darling said Brothers has been working on her swing.
“She was feeling a little down,” Darling said. “We worked a little yesterday on just hitting line drives and powering through the ball. And today it paid off. She hit well today.
“That should make her feel a little bit better.”
A different double, off the bat of Brooke Bishop, produced Drury’s first run in the top of the first.
Bishop drove the ball down the third base line and got to second with two out. Perry’s single moved her to third, and Bishop came home on a pitch that got to the backstop to give Drury a 1-0 lead.
After Brothers’ blast to start the second, Drury needed just one more hit, a drive by Maddie Saunders (2-for-3), to score six more times in the inning. The Blue Devils’ patience at the plate paid off to the tune of five walks in the inning; four of those free passes turned into runs.
In the third, Brothers’ two-run double to left field keyed a five-run rally that pushed the lead to 13-0 and threatened to end the game after just four innings.
But the Hurricanes were able to extend the game with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth.
Izzy Tart led off with a single up the middle. Danielle Glasier then reached on a sacrifice bunt when Drury attempted to get Tart at second base.
Alayna Shears followed with a ground ball, and this time the Blue Devils did get the runner at second, Glasier, to leave runners at the corners with one out.
Both eventually came home on wild pitches to trim Hoosac Valley’s deficit to 11 runs and force the game to a fifth inning.
In the top of the fifth, Perry hit a one-out, infield single, and her courtesy runner, Emily Lyons, stole second to get into scoring position. A groundout off the bat of Norah Wood moved Lyons to third, and she came home on a single by Brothers to put Drury back ahead by 12 runs.
In the bottom of the inning, Gracelyn Wright reached on a two-out single for the Hurricanes, but Drury catcher Bishop caught her trying to steal second to end the game.
Averie McGovern went the distance in the circle for Hoosac Valley, striking out seven and allowing seven earned runs.
Hoosac Valley coach Mike Ameen has been happy with the work he has gotten from the junior transfer, who stepped into a role where she is one of just a couple of upperclassmen for a young Hurricane squad.
“She had her change-up working today, which hasn’t been a good pitch for her in previous games, but she’s been working on it and improved,” Ameen said. “She’s a big part of our team, and it’s a lot for a young person to step into a team that she hasn’t been a part of and be a starting pitcher. So I give her a lot of credit.
“We’re all freshmen, so having an older kid with Danielle [Glasier], our senior captain and catcher – the upperclassmen play in the battery but the young kids are out there trying to learn. You’ve got to start somewhere.”
Hoosac Valley (3-5) will look to get back in the win column on Friday when it goes to Brattleboro, Vt.
Drury Friday will look to stay unbeaten when it hosts McCann Tech.
Darling said that continuing the team’s winning ways was a higher priority on Thursday than breaking a five-game losing streak to the Hurricanes.
“It’s always a thing, but we are just going one day at a time, one game at a time,” she said. “I didn’t really build it up like, ‘It’s Hoosac, and you have to do it.’ We are saying: Take care of the little things, find our confidence and just drive through everything. That’s what we did.
“It is working. It’s helping to build a lot of confidence. They’ve been together a long time – the COVID year and all the way through. It’s still the same group of kids, minus a few seniors here and there. … They’ve learned a lot. They’ve been through a lot. They’re working on confidence. They’re working on driving through the ball, and they pick each other up tremendously.”
