High School Girls Softball Round-up

Local pitchers shine

by Steev Riccardo

Both Shepherd Hill’s Molly Covill and Oxford’s Nicole “The Franchise” Mangaudis pitched tremendous games this week as the pair of aces continues to help their team’s start to separate themselves from the pack and get ready for impending District league play.

Mangaudis had an outstanding performance last Thursday striking out 13 batters while also banging out four hits in leading the Pirates to a big win 12-0 over the David Prouty Panthers in key Southern Worcester County League action.

Jamie Brodeur and Evelyn Marquis also contributed to the win with some strong hitting which at press time had the Pirates looking good at 8-5 overall and in the mix for a second straight district berth.

Meanwhile the Shepherd Hill Rams also rode the solid pitching of Covill along with the timely hitting of Cassidy Colby to hold off the Auburn Rockets 1-0 in Dudley.  The Rams are also a pretty sure bet to notch a District spot.  

Indians Give Cougars a battle: Even though the Bartlett Indians have been having a rough season, they do show glimpses of hope for the future. 

They gave a very good Quaboag Cougars team a real run for their money last Friday before dropping a hard fought game 7-4.  The Cougars, who are one of the top teams in Central Mass and have only lost twice all year, found out that the Indians weren’t going to be a pushover.

Sophomore Dani Stone had 3 hits while star outfielder Sarah Lamont contributed a pair of hits for the Indians in the loss.

Bartlett’s Lucy Orne: 12-year old seventh grader Lucy Orne continues to get better for the Indians and gives the team very high hopes that she will be their pitcher and mainstay for years to come.

Orne recently received some words of encouragement from Oxford Pirates ace Nicole Mangaudis, who knows better than anyone what its like starting for the varsity at a young age. 

Mangaudis survived some tentative moments as a freshman and has gone on to become solid as a rock on the mound for the Pirates, pitching every inning of every game.

In a recent interview, Mangaudis recalled her early days, “When I first started as a freshmen it was really difficult, I felt sore at the end of week, my arm was killing me but as four years have passed I don’t feel any pain at all. It’s really more fun that it is a job.” Orne can only take these this quote to heart and stay focused.  

Orne definitely has the tools to become an ace for the Indians, she also has a very good experienced catcher in junior Tori Mcintyre, who will be around another year to help tutor the youngster.

SWCL Leaders:  The Pirates have a couple of girls that are killing the ball in catcher Sarah Smith and Evelyn Marquis. Smith is currently batting .441 and Marquis is right behind her with an impressive .429 average. 

In the pitching departmen,t it’s all about Covill and Mangaudis. Each has a low earned-run average and rank in the top ten in SWCL.  Only Jordan Kingman of Tantasqua has pitched more innings than Mangaudis; they don’t call her “The Franchise” for nothing.

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