First Inning Outburst Sparks Redmen

For the Lowell High girls softball team, a root canal would have been more fun than the first inning of Wednesday night's game with Tewksbury.

The Redmen sent 14 batters to the plate at cold and drizzly Memorial Field, and 10 of them scored as TMHS trounced Merrimack Valley Conference rival Lowell, 14-6, to improve its record to 13-5 on the season.

had a hit, a walk, scored two runs and drove in one, all in the first inning, as Tewksbury pounded out seven hits before Lowell could record the first three outs of the game.

had a two-run double,  sophomore first baseman Missy Cordwell  had a two-run single and sophomore shortstop Tiffanie Marsh had a two-run triple, all in the first inning.

"We got all over them right away," . "They contributed to everything we were hitting with some fielding mistakes and some bad throws, but what set it all up was our ability to play the small ball game. We forced them to make mistakes."

went the distance and earned her 12th win of the season. Benvenuto matched her career high in strikeouts, fanning 10 Lowell batters while allowing seven hits.

"Kayla threw the ball well," DiRocco said. "That's a lot of strike outs against a good hitting team like Lowell."

Tewksbury jumped out to a 10-0 lead, then watched Lowell creep back into it with four runs in the fourth, one in the fifth and one in the top of the sixth. But the Redmen answered with four more runs in the bottom of the sixth to salt the game away. Cordwell, junior catcher Lauren Texeira, sophomore right fielder Sam Laferriere and freshman first baseman Shannon McLaughlin knocked in the runs in the sixth.

Offensively, Texeira and Marsh each had three hits on the night, while Cordwell, senior center fielder Ally Greene and junior third baseman Katie Doherty had two hits each. All nine of Tewksbury's starters had at least one hit in the game, as the Redmen pounded out 13 singles and two extra base hits against Lowell.

"Our bats finally woke up," DiRocco said. "We had been in a little bit of a slump the last few games."

Tewksbury, which has already clinched a state tournament berth, improved its MVC record to 8-5. The TMHS softball team, which competes in MVC Division 1, fell out of contention for the MVC championship earlier this week with an 8-4 loss to Chelmsford.

Tewksbury and Chelmsford were tied, 4-4, through six innings of that game on Monday, but Chelmsford pulled away with four runs in the bottom of the sixth to all but erase Tewksbury's hopes of winning or sharing the MVC title.

"We played them tough," DiRocco said. "We got a lot of runs and seven hits off of a kid (Chelmsford's Meghan Rich) who threw a no-hitter at us last time. But in the sixth, the roof caved in."

Tewksbury hosts Methuen on Friday at 7:00 p.m. at Memorial Field.