Westport's Greens Farm Academy Sports: Softball, Baseball Teams Win

The following sports wrap up is from Greens Farms Academy in Westport:

In what was a good week for the Greens Farms Academy Dragons, the girls softball team won its first varsity game in three seasons, the boys baseball team won its first game of the year and the girls lacrosse team stayed undefeated.

SOFTBALL

Maddy Canning (New Canaan) recorded her first varsity win from the circle as the Greens Farms Academy girls softball team won its first game in three years, 23-13 over The Harvey School on Tuesday.

Lead-off hitter Lydia Groves (Riverside) had three hits and scored two runs while eighth grader Lucy Nelson (Westport) scored runs after reaching base four times in five at-bats.

Senior captain Kallie Fellows (Fairfield) added three hits while junior captain Celeste Matte (Stratford) scored three runs on a hit and two walks.

The game was clinched in the bottom of the sixth when Janise Park (Bridgeport) singled home Alyssia Getschow (Westport) from third base.

TRACK AND FIELD

A number of school records fell during GFA’s track meet at Cheshire Academy over the weekend. The day started off with school records in the boys and girls 4x100. The boys ran the event in 47.94 from the team of Ethan Phan (Bridgeport), MJ Freeman (Shelton), Aaron Miller (Stamford) and Nick Attai (Bridgeport). The girls' team of Samantha Freeman (Shelton), Jazzy Joseph (Bridgeport), Bryn Morrison (Weston) and Ryan Morris Stamford) ran a 54.94.

The boys 4x400 team of Scott Barnet (Ridgefield), Tyler Bieder (Southport), Miller and Freeman created a school with a time of 3:52.11.

Senior Olivia Sullivan (Norwalk) established new marks in the 100 (13.10 seconds) and tied the school record in the high jump (5-foot- 6).

Krya Inston (Norwalk) established a new school record in the javelin, being the first-ever Dragon to take up the event. Her best toss went 53 feet, 7 inches.

In his individual races, Freeman set new marks in the 100 (10.83) and 200 (23.03).

GIRLS LACROSSE

Senior Kate Paliotta (Westport) had five goals and two assists to lead GFA to an 11-1 win over King on Monday.

Alex Nesi (Fairfield) had two goals, Steph Wistriech (Wilton) had two goals, Sarah Peltier (Stamford) had 1 goal and 1 assist while Ella Murphy (Darien) had a goal. Fran DeVita (Darien), Lucy Holzinger (Norwalk), Caroline Rintoul (Darien) and Bella Litt (Darien) all had one assist.

Kelly Van Hoesen (Greenwich) saved eight out of nine shots and Kaitlin Reed (Southport) stopped all three shots she faced.

The next time out, GFA topped Hopkins by a 15-5 count. Paliotta scored four goals and assisted on another while

a trio of other Dragons had three goals each as the team rolled to the win on Wednesday.

Nesi, Murphy and Wistreich each netted three goals for the Dragons. Sarah Logan (Darien) and Katie Mackle (New Canaan) each tallied single goals while DeVita and Peltier both notched an assist.

In net, Van Hoesen (5 saves on eight shots) and Reed (6 saves on 8 shots) split the duties, backstopping the win.

BOYS LACROSSE

Will Byrne (Darien) scored three goals, but the Dragons fell to Hopkins 12-6 on Wednesday afternoon.

Charlie Benson (Darien) added two goals for GFA while Zach Liston (Wilton) had a single goal and four assists.

Goalie Ryan Pilkington (Weston) stopped seven shots.

BOYS GOLF

Playing without one of its top golfers due to illness, the Dragons hosted The Masters School at Birchwood Country Club and came away with a 9-0 victory earlier in the week.

Eighth grader Will Lodge (Darien) led all scorers with a 41 to earn medalist honors. Senior Curtis Tauck (Westport) was one shot behind with a 42, and sophomore Giani Panariello (Westport) was one shot behind Tauck with a 43. Sophomore Piero Panariello (Westport) carded a 47 while senior captain Charlie Thompson (Southport) and eighth grader Will Mackle (New Canaan), in his first competition, turned in identical 51s.

GFA, which won its first five dual matches of the season, then went to St. Luke’s on Thursday, falling to the Storm by a 6-3 count.

GFA played well and held a 3-2 advantage until the final foursome.

Piero Panariello led the way for GFA winning his match with a 38. Piero's 38 also halved for medalist honors.

Lodge won his match with a 39 while Giani Panariello halved his match with a 41.

Tauck shot a 44 followed by twin 51s from senior captain Thompson and Mackle.

BASEBALL

Joe Cirillo (Fairfield) pitched five innings and struck out nine walking aiding his own cause by going 2-for- 3 with a double and RBI, leading Greens Farms Academy to a 13-3 win over Monfort on Monday afternoon.

Milo Becker (Westport) and Mark Roszkowski (Westport) both went 2-for- 3 with a double each with Becker adding two RBIs. Chris Glynn (Stamford) also had two singles, an RBI and a run. Lukens Boolbol (Greenwich) was 1-for- 3 with a run scored while Sean Hogan (Westport) was 1-for- 3 with two RBIs.

In the middle of the week, the Dragons fell to Rye Country Day School 10-3.

Sam Stuart (Westport) had a triple and two RBIs while Eric Thompson (Southport) had two Ks in two innings on the mound.

On Thursday, Hogan had two hits and Mack Muller (Westport) added a double, but King Low Heywood Thomas was too strong and shut out the Dragons 6-0 in the final game of the week.

BOYS TENNIS

The boys varsity tennis team defeated conference rival King on the road Tuesday with a 5-2 victory.

The Dragons were tied 2-2 after first round of singles with freshmen Aiden Helfant (Riverside) and Niklas Simonsen (Riverside) recording straight set victories out of the three and four slots, respectively.

The second round was doubles and GFA demonstrated their depth with a sweep in all three matches.

At first doubles Matt Smith (Purchase, N.Y.) and Sean Minson (Darien) won, 6-0, 6-0. At second doubles, Jack Ramsay (Darien) and Marcus Ng (Greenwich) won 6-0, 6-1 and at No. 3 Chase LaFontaine (Weston) and Jason Garrelick (Wilton) earned a 6-0, 6-4 win.

GIRLS TENNIS

The GFA girls varsity tennis team defeated Westover School Monday in Middlebury by a score of 7-0, bringing their season record to two wins and two losses.

Junior Devon Wolfe (Darien) won with a double-bagel at first singles; Sarah Wagner (Westport) won 6-0, 6-1 at No. 2 singles; Ryan Boyle (Southport) won 6-0, 6-1 at third singles; Kate Flicker (Fairfield) won 6-1, 6-0 at fourth singles.

GFA’s top doubles team of Allie Agnew (Westport) and Stephanie Gentile (Westport) won 6-4, 7-6 (12-10); the No. 2 doubles team of Lauren Ritchey (Norwalk) and Jocelyn Magrone (Darien) won 7-6 (7-4), 6-2; and the third doubles squad of Margot Goldsmith (Darien) and Nikki Goldberg (Westport) won 6-4, 7-5.

Later in the week, GFA trekked to Hopkins and fell by a 7-0 score.

Photo 1: GFA eighth grader Lucy Nelson of Westport scores a run in her team's victory over The Harvey School April 11. Nelson reached base four times out of five at-bats.; Photo 2: GFA senior Kallie Fellows of Fairfield makes an out at second base. She also had three hits in her team's victory over The Harvey School on April 11. Photo credit: Contributed