Melrose Softball Succumbs, 15-3, to Woburn Onslaught

Behind a 15-run offensive barrage, led by third baseman Meaghan Moore, and a two-hitter by Angela Pappalardo on the mound, the Woburn High softball team defeated visiting Melrose 15-3 Monday in a mercy-rule-shortened game.

With the win, the 9-4 Tanners have now won five of their last six games.

“We’ve been hitting the ball really well one through nine,” Woburn coach Courtney Nelson-Sigsbury said of her team’s recent success.

All hands were on deck again Monday, but Moore stood out, going 3-4 with two triples, a double and a walk.

Moore, the team’s cleanup hitter, drove in three runs and scored three more. In the bottom of the first inning, she reached Melrose starter Casey Kelley first with a one-out, two-run triple. Teammates Taylor Pacheco, Pappalardo and Stephanie Kerrigan each knocked in a run later in the inning, as the Tanners took an early 5-0 lead.

In the bottom of the third inning, with Woburn up 5-2, Kelley recorded two quick outs but then walked the next four batters, bringing Woburn first baseman Heather Bushmich home on a Kim Dulong walk.

Kelley then led off the bottom of the fourth inning with two walks. After an error, the bases were loaded for Bushmich, who came through with a bases-clearing double, as Woburn took a 9-2 lead. Bushmich then scored on a double by left fielder Jennifer Booker.

With Tori Wyland relieving Kelley to start the bottom of the fifth inning, Pacheco had an RBI double to score Moore, after her second triple of the game.

Woburn got four more off Wyland in the bottom of the sixth inning. With two outs and the bases loaded, freshman catcher Courtney Davis hit a bases-clearing double. She then scored on Moore’s double, and the game was called with Woburn up 12 runs, at 15-3.

Melrose scored twice in the top of the second inning to pull within three, at 5-2. Shortstop Alyssa DiRaffaele, who singled to lead off the inning, crossed home on an error, and then Pappalardo walked Wyland with the bases loaded to bring Melrose second baseman Lindsay Bright across. Then, in the top of the sixth inning, DiRaffaele scored on another Woburn error.

Pappalardo gave up three runs, but none earned, in six innings of work. In addition to DiRaffaele’s single in the second, Ashley Baldwin had Melrose’s only other hit with a single in the sixth.

For Melrose, Kelley gave up 10 runs, but only five earned, in four innings. She also only allowed six hits but walked nine. Four Woburn batters also reached on errors behind her.

After starting the season 1-5, Melrose won its next four games to reach the .500 mark, at 5-5. However, with the loss to Woburn, Melrose, 5-7, is now on a two-game skid. The team returns to action at home at 3:45 p.m. Wednesday against first-place Reading (12-2).

Woburn hosts Wakefield (4-8) at 3:45 p.m. Wednesday.