Valiant Performance By Dew Not Enough For Wellesley

The Wellesley Raiders Middle Essex 14A softball team fell to the second place Newton Panthers 12-9 in a thriller on Wednesday night at Lee Field.

Wellesley trailed by six runs going into the bottom of the seventh inning, when Emily Dew ripped a two-run triple. She later scored on an Alice Rocha groundout, cutting the deficit to three. Wellesley failed to score after that, however, like in games past, the girls fought hard until the end.

"The team has done that all year," said head coach Ed Carter. "They have a lot of character, we unfortunately just come up short a lot. "

Wellesley held the potent Newton offense to just one run throughout the final three innings of the game.

"There were two innings early where we had six errors and that was the difference. It was a good competitive game until the end though," Carter said.

Wellesley pitcher Sarah Goss allowed just one hit during that span. She struck out three Newton batters while surrendering just one unearned run, keeping Wellesley in the game. Hannah Hunter started the game for Wellesley and was relieved by Dew.

Each pitched two innings, before Goss took over. Julia Gagosian chipped in with two runs and an RBI for Wellesley, and Maria Tashian an RBI and a run of her own.

With the loss, Wellesley drops to 2-8-1 overall. The Raiders will travel to Lexington next Tuesday to take on the Gaels.