PEABODY — The Peabody softball team may have taken a little longer than usual to get the bats going, but in the end the No. 9 Tanners started clicking and ran away with an 11-1 win over No. 16 Newton North in a Division 1 tournament Round of 8 game Friday evening at Kiley Brothers Field.
Avery Grieco led the offensive attack for the Tanners, going 2-for-3 with a home run and three RBI. Kiley Doolin went 1-for-2 with two RBI, while Logan Lomasney (2-for-4), Emma Bloom (2-for-4), Abby Bettencourt (1-for-4) and Gina Terrazzano (1-for-3, double) each notched one RBI. Jess Steed (2-for-3, triple) and Isabel Bettencourt (1-for-4) also added hits in the win for Peabody. The only player in the lineup who didn’t notch a hit — Penny Spack — still reached base three times and scored a run.
“The way we hit towards the end of the game is how I know we can hit, so I’m glad we finally were able to get the bats going as the game went on,” said Peabody coach Tawny Palmieri. “Every girl in the lineup contributed to the win (Friday), and that’s a huge confidence booster for us.”
Abby Bettencourt also picked the win in the circle for Peabody, tossing a complete game and allowing one run on just two hits with three walks and four strikeouts. She took a no-hitter into the sixth inning.
“She’s just so steady for us out there, we always have confidence in her when she’s pitching,” Palmieri said of Abby Bettencourt. “She was mixing up her pitches and really keeping them off balance.”
After Abby Bettencourt worked through a 1-2-3 top of the first inning, the Tanners came out in the bottom of the first and got right to work.
It all started with Bloom’s one-out single, then Spack drew a walk and Grieco was hit by a pitch to load up the bases. That opened up the door for Doolin, who hit a hard ground ball to shortstop. The Newton North defender attempted to make the play at third base, but the throw got away and allowed two Tanners runners to come home and make it a 2-0 game.
Newton North put together a threat of its own in the top of the second, putting two runners on with one out. But Abby Bettencourt worked her way out of the jam, forcing two straight groundouts to get out of the inning unscathed.
The score remained there until the bottom of the fourth, when Peabody was able to push two more runs across. Doolin drew a walk to open up the inning, and after a ground out from Logan Lomasney moved her over the second, Terrazzano stepped into the box and ripped an RBI double off the right center field wall to make it 3-0. Steed followed that with a single that nearly drove in another run, but Terrazzano got caught in a rundown between third and home. But it didn’t end up mattering too much, as Abby Bettencourt stepped into the box next and knocked Steed home with an RBI single.
From there the Tanners turned on the faucet.
Grieco smashed a two-run homer in the bottom of the fifth to push the lead to six nothing, and after Newton North finally pushed across a run in the top of the sixth, the Tanners exploded for five runs in the bottom of the inning.
A two-run single from Doolin and RBI knocks from Bloom, Grieco and Lomasney rounded out the scoring for Peabody before Abby Bettencourt moved 1-2-3 through the Tigers order in the top of the seventh to seal the victory.
Peabody (21-2) now moves on to the Div. 1 state semifinal round, where the Tanners will go up against No. 4 Wachusett at a date and time to be determined.
“We’re going to take one day for rest because the girls have been grinding every day this week, but we’re ready for the challenge,” said Palmieri. “The biggest thing for us is to not take anyone lightly, and we’re going to approach this game the same way we’ve approached every game this season.”
