Craftsbury Academy junior Sadie Skorstad connects with the ball during play against Peoples Academy, May 6. Craftsbury defeated Peoples 15-2.
by Ken Brown
CRAFTSBURY – The Craftsbury Academy (CA) softball team bounced back from a loss earlier in the week to Twinfield-Cabot with a resounding win over Peoples Academy at Dustan Field, improving to 1-2 on the season.
Maddi Duke earned the win in the circle and drove in a pair of runs to lead Twinfield-Cabot to an 18-10 road win over the Lady Chargers last Thursday. Danville’s Kendall Hale belted a home run in the seventh inning to put the game out of reach as the Lady Trojans improved to 2-4 on the season. Danville did not field a softball team this season and has a handful of student athletes playing for Twinfield-Cabot this spring. Hayley Smith took the loss for CA and Savannah Boyce finished in relief.
“It was a really cold day for both teams and coming off of spring break, it took us awhile to shake the rust off,” said head coach Ashley Gravel. “We made a bunch of mental and physical mistakes, but we came back to practice on Friday focused and hammered out some things we needed to improve on. This group of girls communicate with each other very well and it was a completely different team on the field over the weekend,” added Gravel.
The Lady Chargers bounced back in a big way on Saturday, pummeling Peoples Academy 15-2 at home behind eight strikeouts from Savannah Boyce. Boyce also powered the offense with a pair of hits and two RBI’s. Sophomore Ade Gillespie made two spectacular catches in centerfield to help stamp out a late PA rally to secure the win in five innings. The loss dropped the Lady Wolves to 0-4 on the season.
Craftsbury Academy’s Alana Ulrich (left) safely reaches third base ahead of the play by Onika Bedell (right) of Peoples Academy on Dustan Field Saturday. The Chargers outscored the Wolves 15-2.
“The work we did after the loss to Twinfield-Cabot was noticeable on the field on Saturday. We were crisper, it was a little warmer, and decision making was better. Ade had a big sacrifice bunt for us in the fifth inning to advance a pair of runners and Savannah drove them in to end the game. We are keeping up with teams a little better than we have in the past couple of years and this was a big win for us on our home field. This felt more like our true home opener and we are looking forward to the weather getting warmer and excited for the rest of the season. These girls work hard and I’m looking forward to seeing where this team will be by the end of the season,” said Gravel.
CA traveled to Winooski for a Mountain League match-up on Monday and will stay on the road to face Richford on Thursday. They will wrap up their week with a home date against Lake Region on Saturday afternoon.
