ATHOL — The Athol varsity softball team had only two home runs through its first seven games.
On Tuesday, the Red Raiders doubled that as Haley Bigwood and Geca Baptista both hit home runs over the center field wall in a 7-4 rout of the Gardner Wildcats.
Baptista (three RBIs), who batted leadoff for a change, was 3-for-4 and a triple away from the cycle. She entered the contest hitting .263 with only one extra-base hit. She raised her batting average to .347 with Tuesday’s effort.
“She’s been off a little lately with hitting,” Athol coach Sharon Chauvette said. “I moved her up to leadoff today and her bat came alive. It was really nice to see that.”
Baptista’s home run came during a five-run second inning for the Red Raiders (4-4). Down 2-1, Amber Mahony and Haley Wrigley led the inning off with back-to-back singles. Mahony advanced to third on Wrigley’s single to right field. After Wrigley stole second base to put runners in scoring position, Lindsey Leblanc hit a liner just inside the right field line for a double, scoring both Mahony and Wrigley to put the Red Raiders up 3-2.
Hannah Lajoie then singled to right field, scoring Leblanc from second base. Celeste Torraco reached first on a fielder’s choice at second base. Baptista then drove a two-strike pitch over the center field fence to put the Red Raiders up 6-2.
“The bats, we got the bats going that was good,” Chauvette said. “That’s key for us. If we can get the bats going, I think we will be all set.”
The Red Raiders hit Wildcats starter Keira Columbus for six runs on seven hits. She left after only getting one out in the second inning.
The Wildcats (3-1) brought in Abby Tassone, who had allowed only one run on three hits in 14 innings so far this season. She held the Red Raiders in check, allowing only one run on five hits. Tassone induced two double plays.
“(Tassone) pitched for them last year and we saw her (twice),” Chauvette said. “I think once everybody saw her at least once (today), they were swinging the bats and that’s what we told them. I told them don’t back out, just swing.”
The Red Raiders’ lone run off Tassone came in the sixth. After Kaitlin Baptista reached on a fielder’s choice, Torraco singled to center to put runners on first and third. On an 0-1 count, Geca Baptista hit a ball to second. Wildcat second baseman Divina Hernandez bobbled the ball, needing an extra second to get the throw to first, which gave Geca Baptista enough time to reach base and score Kaitlin Baptista to put the Red Raiders up 7-4.
“That was huge for us because you definitely want to go (into the seventh inning) with a lead,” Chauvette said. “That was huge. We were hoping to get two runners in in the bottom of the sixth there and Destiny (Wrigley) hit a foul ball just a foot off the line, which would have scored two, but it was nice.”
Wrigley came up to bat with Torraco on third and Geca Baptista on second, but struck out to end the inning.
Leblanc pitched well for the Red Raiders, going all seven innings. She gave up four runs on eight hits, while striking out 12. Leblanc got herself out of two situations where the Wildcats had runners on second and third with two outs. She struck out Gardner’s Cora Merchant in the first inning and then forced her to ground out to second in the fifth.
Leblanc went 1-2-3 in the seventh with two strike outs.
Bigwood’s home run came in the first inning on a 1-0 pitch. She drove it over the center field fence for her third home run of the season.