Lake Placid’s Jillian Kern makes contact with the ball during Tuesday’s home game against Boquet Valley.
(Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)
LAKE PLACID — The Lake Placid softball team secured its fourth victory of the season with a 9-8 home victory over the Boquet Valley Griffins Tuesday afternoon, despite a late rally from the Griffins.
The Blue Bombers jumped out to a commanding 7-0 lead in the first inning as seven different players scored a run. Lake Placid’s Willow Wood added a two-run single during the inning, while Brooke Beaney and Brooke Meyer each had an RBI single.
The Griffins added their first run of the game in the fifth inning, to make the score 7-1, before the Blue Bombers scored a pair of runs in the bottom half of that inning.
While trailing 9-1, Boquet Valley’s Charlotte Faber scored on a wild pitch in the sixth inning, before scoring six runs in the top of the seventh to nearly complete the comeback.
“The first four-and-a-half innings were super,” Lake Placid’s head coach Greg Hayes said. “And the pitchers just sort of lost it a little bit at the end. They were having a lot of trouble with the hard surface.”
Lake Placid’s Willow Wood pitches during Tuesday’s home game against Boquet Valley.
(Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)
The Griffins scored most of their runs during the final inning through walks and passed balls. Boquet Valley had a potential game-tying runner on base; however, a ground ball to Lake Placid’s shortstop Anisa Cecunjanin, who tagged out the runner to secure the victory.
The Blue Bombers improved to 4-7 overall with the win. The team previously lost to the Griffins 10-5 on April 9 — the first game of the season for both teams. Hayes said he likes how much his squad has improved so far.
“Defensively, we’re 100% better than we were a couple of weeks ago,” he said. “We’re still struggling a little bit with hitting. We’re getting good hits, we’re just not getting enough of it.”
On Tuesday, Beaney led the Blue Bombers offense with two hits, which included a triple. Freshman Addi Colby also added two hits in Lake Placid’s seven-hit outing. Meyer, Wood and Kelsey McKillip each had a single.
Wood started on the mound for the Blue Bombers and took a no-hitter into the fifth inning. She finished with three strikeouts. Lilli Draper pitched one inning and had one strikeout before Wood returned to the mound in the seventh to close out the game.
Lake Placid’s Addy Colby gets ready to field the ball during Tuesday’s home game.
(Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)
Emma Conley started for the Griffins and had two strikeouts as Hickey came in relief in the third inning and struck out seven batters.
Boquet Valley finished the contest with four total hits — with two of those hits coming in the seventh inning. Alex McNaughton, Jalynne Orciani, Ella Pulsifer and Phoebe Pulsifer each had one hit.
The Blue Bombers were slated to host the Chazy Eagles on Wednesday. The team will return to their home diamond for the final time this season at 4:30 p.m. today to face the Ticonderoga Sentinels.
