Stoughton High Softball Beats Foxboro in Home Opener

After Foxboro’s Brenna Connolly scored to tie the game 2-2 in the top of the fourth inning, the responded with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth. Those were the decisive runs in a 4-2 win for the Black Knights Tuesday afternoon in Stoughton.

With the win, the Black Knights improve to 1-1, bouncing back from a on March 29. This was the season opener for Foxboro.

After Kelsey Moriarty reached to lead off the bottom of the fourth for Stoughton, Samantha Mattie hit a double, putting runners on second and third with no outs. Nicole Hayner grounded out, driving in Moriarty. One batter later, Payton Pizzano drove in Mattie, giving the Black Knights a 4-2 lead.

“You go ahead, they tie it up and you can get down a little bit, but this team did not get down at all—they came up, they had the bats swinging and we had some timely hits,” Stoughton coach Janet Sullivan said.

The two run cushion was more than enough for Stoughton pitcher Emily Cramer, who tossed a complete game (7 innings), striking out five. Both of Foxboro’s runs were unearned.

“Emily did a great job. First inning she wasn’t warmed up; she had a little trouble with her control, but she settled right down,” Sullivan said. “The rest of the game she was hitting her spots, mixing her pitches real well.

Connolly also pitched well for Foxboro, keeping the Warriors in the game. She recorded 9 strikeouts.

Foxboro coach Lauren Cucinatta said the game came down to “capitalizing on big situations.”

Foxboro did just that in the top of the first inning, with leadoff hitter Eva Mazzoni doubling to start the game and then scoring, following consecutive Stoughton errors. Connolly scored in the fourth following an error. But Foxboro was quiet after that and Stoughton was able to respond.

“[Stoughton] capitalized on the couple of errors we made. We capitalized in the beginning but didn’t continue to capitalize,” Cucinatta said.

After Foxboro took the 1-0 lead, Stoughton scored twice in the bottom of the first. Megan Flaherty drove in Jordan Angelos with two outs and then the next batter, Moriarty, drove in Flaherty.

Stoughton travels to Quincy Wednesday afternoon, while Foxboro (0-1) travels to Blackstone-Millville Regional on Thursday.