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Centaurs
baseball team
enjoys nice
opening week
Woodstock Academy baseball coach Brian Murphy was smiling. His Centaurs are off to a 3-0 start against some quality early-season competition.
Woodstock finished off its opening week of the season with a 7-1 victory over Lyman Memorial.
Prior to that, the Centaurs played their first game last Monday and posted a 6-3 win over an always difficult Waterford team on the road and added a 6-2 win over Norwich Free Academy in its Wednesday home opener.
“I like where the guys are at,” Murphy said. “They realize that we have an opportunity to do some really special things this year. They also realize they just can’t throw their gloves on the field and win. The (ECC) is very competitive and if you don’t show up, you’re going to get beat, but the potential is there in all facets of the game for us to be very successful.”
Sophomore Brady Ericson was a key contributor against the Bulldogs to finish up the week.
Ericson, who had thrown three innings of scoreless relief against Waterford earlier in the week, held Lyman Memorial (1-1) to just two hits in five innings and struck out six to pick up his first win of the season.
Ericson also helped give himself an early lead as he doubled home Eric Mathewson, who had walked, in the bottom of the first inning and then scored himself on a Marcus McGregor double.
Woodstock added three more runs in the third inning when Maxx Corradi walked, stole second and came home on a Mathewson double to right.
Ericson, who is now 6-for-10 (.600) at the plate for the season, followed with a single and McGregor knocked in the second run of the inning with a sacrifice fly. Keon Lamarche, who had two hits, drove in another with a single.
The Centaurs added two more in the fifth when McGregor walked and later scored on a wild pitch and Corradi added a sacrifice fly.
While Woodstock struck first on Saturday, it was NFA that did the honors in the Centaurs’ home opener.
The Centaurs fell behind the Wildcats (1-1) when Connor Doyle reached starting pitcher Riley O’Brien for a two-run single in the first inning.
But O’Brien recovered, went five innings and gave up just four hits.
“He battled. It was a rough first inning getting out of the box, but he settled down, kept us in the game and Eric (Mathewson) did a great job of coming in and closing the door,” Murphy said.
Mathewson pitched the last two innings and recorded the save.
The Centaurs had to wait a bit but found some offense in the fifth inning.
Mathewson got things started when he drew a walk and came home on an Ericson triple. Carter Morissette scored Ericson with a single. Morissette moved up on a stolen base and passed ball and scored on a Lamarche sacrifice fly.
O’Brien singled and Mike Hernandez came in to pinch-run for him. Caleb Simoneau reached on a bunt single and an error on the play allowed Hernandez to come around. Corradi followed suit and also bunted his way aboard and an error allowed Simoneau to score. Morissette finished off the second 3-run rally with a run-scoring double.
Ericson, Morissette and Simoneau each had two hits in the win for the Centaurs.
Earlier in the week, Ericson and O’Brien led the offense with two hits and two runs batted in each in the win over the Lancers.
Ericson hit a solo homer and had an RBI single and also pitched three innings of scoreless relief while O’Brien added an RBI single and a sacrifice fly.
Winning pitcher Kaden Murphy had a sacrifice fly and a pair of singles for the Centaurs. Morissette (2-for-4) and Corradi both had doubles in the win.
Girls’ Golf
Woodstock coach Earl Semmelrock was a little concerned that he was missing his top player this year, Maya Orbegozo, for the match against Waterford on Thursday.
He didn’t have to be. The Lancers could not field a full team and the Centaurs posted the forfeit win with a 251 total to raise their record to 2-0 overall and in the ECC.
Ella Musumeci paced the team with a 56 against the Lancers while Lily Bottone carded a 63 and Isabella Siwiko posted a 65.
Orbegozo did play in the season opener against East Lyme.
The senior returned after a year off from the game to take medalist honors with a 46 in the season opener for the Centaurs who downed the Vikings, 230-257, at the Old Lyme Country Club.
Musumeci shot a 57 for Woodstock in the opening win.
Boys’ Tennis
The Woodstock boys’ tennis team got off to a nice start in its first week of competition.
The Centaurs hosted both New London and Killingly indoors at the Pomfret School and posted wins over both squads.
“This is a very positive feeling,” said coach Siana Green. “Having to forfeit our No. 3 doubles and being down, 1-0, right from the start of a match is very scary.”
Woodstock has only eight players out for the team currently, leaving them two players shy of a full roster to compete in all seven matches that comprise a high school match.
What made it even more difficult is that the Centaurs are normally pretty evenly matched with Killingly.
“I knew it was going to be difficult because we were pretty even last year and they didn’t graduate many people. I was very happy and proud to come out with the win,” Green said.
The encounter with Killingly went down to the wire.
Woodstock sophomore Owen Rigney, playing at second singles, pulled out the decisive victory that lifted Woodstock to the 4-3 win Tuesday.
The two teams were tied at three with Rigney and his opponent, Phillip Purcell, still going at it.
Purcell had won the first set, 6-4, and Rigney came back to tie with a 6-4 victory in the second.
But the daylight waned by the decisive third set and it was decided to move indoors to complete it.
Rigney then gave the Centaurs the win with a 6-3 victory in the third set.
James Le also prevailed at fourth singles for Woodstock, posting a straight-set, 6-3, 6-3 win over Killingly’s Ross Hill.
The first doubles team of Diego Rodriguez and Ethan Staples won their match, 6-2, 6-2, and the duo of Quentin Patterson and Ryan Chabot were 6-1, 7-5 winners.
The Centaurs had a much easier time with the Whalers.
Cormac Nielsen, Rigney, Tyler Chamberlin and Rodriguez all won their singles matches.
Le and Staples took first doubles while Paterson and Chabot were also winners at second doubles.
Green has decided to alternate Rodriguez and Le at fourth singles.
The numbers will be even a bigger problem over spring break as both Le and Rodriguez are not available for matches against NFA and Montville.
“We will be forfeiting, at least, two positions. Hopefully, no one gets sick. I’m hoping we can manage a win still against NFA,” Green said.
Boys’ Lacrosse
The schedule makers did no favors for the Woodstock boys’ lacrosse team.
The Centaurs had to battle against East Lyme in their opener and followed that up with a game against Waterford, the top two teams in the ECC last season.
“When you see that schedule, you know those are two of the toughest opponents that you will see all year,” said coach Jason Tata.
Fortunately, the Centaurs did get their first win of the season after those two tough openers.
Woodstock downed Norwich Tech/Windham Tech, 13-3.
Zach Gessner may have only scored one goal in the match against the Warriors but he was extremely valuable when it came to distributing the ball.
The Centaurs senior attack assisted on nine of the other Woodstock tallies.
Junior attack Jared Nielsen benefitted the most from Gessner’s aid as four of his team-leading five goals came with the help of his teammate.
Three of Nielsen’s goals came in the first quarter when the Centaurs bounced out to a 4-0 lead and never trailed in the match.
Freshman Dylan Phillips added a hat trick of his own while Henry Wotton had a pair of goals and Ryan Wallace contributed a goal and an assist.
Woodstock needed the win after East Lyme had handled the Centaurs with ease, allowing just a Nielsen goal, in a 20-1 win on the first Saturday of the season.
But things were much better against the Lancers as the Centaurs kept it close before falling, 7-4.
The Lancers led 2-1 at the end of the first quarter and 4-1 at the half. But the Centaurs rallied in the third quarter to cut the deficit to one, 4-3, before Waterford scored three of the last four goals to scrape together the victory.
Gessner scored twice for Woodstock while Cashel Noel and Quintavanh Sangasy added the other tallies. Seamus McDermott had an assist.
Softball
Surprise, surprise, it was quite breezy at the Bentley Athletic Complex last Monday.
That breeze, hardly gentle, combined with temperatures in the high 40s made for a rather chilly afternoon.
Not one that would seem conducive to balls carrying deep into the outfield. The Centaurs proved that wrong.
Seniors Lexi Thompson and Avery Collin both hit long home runs in an eight-run fifth inning that led Woodstock to a 13-3 season-opening win over St. Bernard.
“We have a senior and junior group so if they’re focused, we have a lot of strong hitters. You don’t see it go out on a day like this too much but we have some pretty good players and if they get a hold of it, it doesn’t matter much what the weather is,” said coach Jason Gerum.
The Centaurs fell behind, 2-0, as the Saints put two up on the board in the top of the first inning, but Woodstock erased that deficit in the second inning with four runs.
Collin knocked in two with a double while Sarah McArthur tripled home one and Emily Goodell singled home another.
Two innings later, the floodgates opened. Goodell had a one-out triple and McArthur reached on a bunt single. Maddie Martinez knocked in both with a triple and didn’t have to run fast to score from third. Thompson followed with a bomb to left field, one of the longest Gerum has seen hit at the softball field.
“That was a monster. it was one of the hardest hits I’ve seen here,” Gerum said. The only hits he remembered that rivaled the Thompson blast, which cleared not only the fence but the stone wall behind it, were one by Adelys Concepcion which went over the right field fence and onto the turf football field beyond and one by Riley Hehir that also hit the stone wall in left.
The rally wasn’t over yet.
Elizabeth Morgis singled, Ainsley Morse doubled her home and, after a walk to Mia Pannone, Collin hit one over the left field fence for her first career varsity home run.
“I didn’t hit it that hard, didn’t take a full swing, so I was actually shocked that it went that far,” Collin said with a laugh.
Collin finished with five RBIs from the eighth spot in the order.
Thompson pitched the first five innings and allowed just two hits and struck out nine.
She did allow two runs in the first on a triple, a groundout, a walk, stolen base and an error and a wild pitch.
Plus, it’s always nice to get that first win in the first game of the season.
Unfortunately, things did not go as well over the remainder of the week in a pair of road games.
The Centaurs lost at Norwich Free Academy, 14-6, and followed that up with a 6-2 loss to undefeated Coventry.
Coventry chipped away at the Centaurs on their home field. Remington Casida drove in winning pitcher Elizabeth Mitchell with a double in the first inning. The Patriots added another in the fourth on an RBI single by Maya Waterhouse and put it away with two runs each in the fifth and sixth innings.
Mitchell and Brooke Rand had RBI singles in the fifth while Caroline Wesoloskie homered and Charlotte Wesoloskie had an RBI double in the sixth.
The Centaurs mustered just four hits against Mitchell.
Collin and Delaney Anderson knocked in the runs for the Centaurs who slipped to 1-2.
The Wildcats didn’t let Woodstock hang around for long.
They scored 12 runs in the first two innings to put the game out of reach.
The Centaurs started out well. Martinez doubled and Thompson hit her second home run of the season to put Woodstock Academy up, 2-0, in the first inning.
Unfortunately, the Wildcats answered with five runs in the bottom of the first inning and added seven more in the second for the insurmountable lead.
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