Wildcats' Solid Hitting Shuts Out North Reading

The softball team was able to knock in runs when it counted, topping the North Reading Hornets, 3-0, on Wednesday afternoon on their home diamond.

"We had nice, timely hitting," said Wilmington coach Audrey Cabral-Pini. "That's the key to softball."

Solid pitching by Tori Lord also allowed gave the Wildcats some breathing room throughout the entire outing, allowing no runners to reach home-plate.

The first four and a half innings were scoreless as Wilmington stranded a pair of base runners in scoring position in both the second and third innings.

It was the bottom of the fourth inning when things started happening for Wilmington (2-2 overall, 2-0 league). After Jennifer Stewart stole second base, Chelsey Westenberg drove her home to get the Wildcats on the board, 1-0.

The Hornets (3-4) tried to respond, but could not spark any momentum after a controversial catch resulted in the first out of the inning.

"No matter how much we complain about some things that went wrong, we didn't hit the ball," said North Reading coach Rusty Russell. "We didn't score any runs, so we have no right to complain."

Wilmington was able to tack on two more runs in the bottom of the fifth, after a lead-off single by Lauren Zaremba and an RBI by Taylor Hanley. Lord then managed to bring home Hanley with a monster double, allowing the Wildcats to widen the scoring gap and go up 3-0.

"It's a good feeling to know that I'm a good hitter this year," Zaremba said. "[I contribute my success] to practice and to [assistant coach Walter Babcock] who is a really good hitting coach."

The closing innings resulted in little action, despite North Reading's Kirsten Morrison reaching for the second time in the game.

Her teammates were unable to bring her home once again in the top of the seventh inning however, and the Hornets walked away with a scoreless 3-0 defeat.

"We've got a lot of work to do," said Russell.

Despite the Hornets' loss, North Reading's sophomore pitcher, Terri Ferrazzani, threw a series of hard, well-placed pitches - striking out five batters in the first three innings.

Next up, the Wildcats will take on Tewksbury on the road today at 3:45 p.m. to try to continue their winning ways.

The Hornets will try to get back on track on Monday when they battle Newburyport on the road at 3:45 p.m.