Sports Highlights

By Don Lyons - May 10, 2007

School softball

Monday, the Tisbury softball team defeated West Tisbury, at Memorial Park, 13-3 to even their record at 2 wins, 2 losses. West Tisbury,a victim of postponements, is 0-2. Edgartown has lost all of its three games.

Babe Ruth begins

The Babe Ruth baseball season opened Saturday under blue skies with three Vineyard teams prepared to compete.

In the first game, Twins pitcher William Stewart shut out the Cardinals while his mates were crossing the plate 22 times. Both Kevin Gallagan and Rich McAuliffe hit safely three times.

Also Saturday, The Blue Jays came from a 10-1 deficit to win their opener, 13-11.

Sunday afternoon it was the Cardinals over the Jays, 11-5. Carlos Guzman and Ben Ciciora hurled for the Cards allowing only two earned runs. Noah Stobie pitched for the Jays fanning three.

Players in the Babe Ruth league are aged 13 to 15.

Island teams will be joined by squads from Mashpee, Bourne and Sandwich in June.

Softball

Monday, the M.V. varsity girls softball team entertained Old Rochester and the lady Bulldogs ran off with the win, 9-1. ORR's Jess Nye held the Islanders to four hits, two by Julie Perry who drove in the Vineyard's only run in the seventh inning. Last Wednesday the girls lost to Apponequet, 7-1. M.V. slips to 1-9 on the season.

Jayvee jottings

Caroline Davey all but matched the no-hit performance of Dighton Rehoboth's Lundstrom, but not quite and the Islanders lost, 1-0.

Emily Alosso, Katie Hines, Taylor Perrotta, Gail Herman, and Holly Robinson have taken turns with stellar defensive plays in recent games.

The Islanders tied Case, 4-4, and lost to Apponequet, 10-2, despite two hits each by Holly Robinson, Katie Hines, and Emily Alosso.

Monday the girls topped Old Rochester, 6-2. The biggest blast was Taylor Perrotta's 2-run triple in the sixth.

The team's record stands at 6-6-1. They are home to Bourne today and travel to Seekonk, Friday.

Fore!

Richard Packish, Richard Combra Jr., Michael deBettencourt, Michael Marchand, and Eric DeBettencourt were the winning combination with a score of 60 at the annual Holy Ghost golf tournament at Mink Meadows, Sunday.

Three teams came in with the same 63 score.

Benefit

A Spring Spaghetti Supper, benefit of the girls softball team, will be served at the PA Club in two sittings: 5:30 and 7:30 pm, Thursday, May 17. Tickets are $10.

Netmen press Raiders

Barnstable (9-1) had to pull out all the stops for a 3-2 win over the Vineyard boys tennis team (6-4) at Marstons Mills, Monday.

After taking first and second singles in straight sets from the McHugh brothers, the Red Raiders had to watch Timo Nivala walk off with the third singles win, 6-2, 6-1. At first doubles, Dylan Hutchinson and Daniel Han won the first set 6-2. Raiders Tim Ball and Blake Blaze roared back to sweep the second, 6-0 and lead in the third, 5-2. Then Hutchinson and Han ran four games to lead 6-5. The Raiders held serve to force a tie-breaker at 6-6. The Island pair had match points at 7-6, 8-7, 9-8 and finally won, 11-9, in what Coach Ned Fennessy called "the best comeback of the year."

Barnstable won at second doubles, 6-2, 6-4, to claim the match.

Minor matters

Behind solid pitching by Andrew Fournier and Zack Bresick's defense, the Twins ran away from the Orioles, Saturday, 19-3.

Also Saturday the Reds bagged the Devil Rays, 10-5 behind Kyle Dostal . Morgan Michailski had three hits.

Tuesday the Rays evened the count, and then some, defeating the Reds, 13-0. Tony Breth was the shutout pitcher and helped his own cause with a grand slam in the second. The Reds turned a rare triple play in the final inning.

Again, Saturday, the Indians squeezed by the Rockies, 8-7. With bases loaded, no outs, and the score tied, Kevin Cleary strode to the mound for the Tribe and struck out three batters in a row.

In the next inning, Kevin's brother James came to bat with the bases loaded and cleared them with a grand slam into left.

The Twins topped the Orioles, 27-1, powered by Tucker McNeeley's three home runs, two of them of the grand variety, plus outstanding defensive play by catcher Austin Fournier.

The Blue Jays lost two to the Marlins, 9-2 and 12-7, but beat the Orioles, 10-6. Aksel Cooperrider hit the Jays' first home run of the year.

The Marlins, the only Minor League team with four girls in the lineup, swept the Blue Jays Saturday and Monday, 12-7, 9-2. At 4-0, the Marlins are unbeaten.

Winged feet

Monday, at Canton, the MVRHS boys track and field team won its meet with Blue Hills by the unlikely score of 132-4. The four points were earned by a tie for second in the high jump and two third place finishes in the 800 and 100.

The girls won their meet at Canton by an equally unlooked-for margin, 124-8.

Scrappy Wildcats caged

Last Thursday the Islanders, both boys and girls, were challenged at West Bridgewater and proved worthy. The boys won, 74.5 - 61.5. The girls prevailed, 70-66. Both meets were decided by the final events, the relays.

The M.V. boys dominated the field events, 40.5 to 13.5. Ryan Gorman (40' 5") and James Bishop (40' 1") were 1-2 in the shot. Ry Yennie (131' 6") Jeff McIsaac, and Harold Pilskaln swept the discus. David Flanders and Yennie were 2-3 with the javelin. Stephen Greenberg (5' 8") and Connor Johnson were 2-3 in the high jump. Connor Rasmussen (19' 2") won the long jump and Jaron Chaplin was third.

The triple jump was another sweep: Rasmussen, Chaplin, and Jordan Kelly.

West Bridgewater did some catching up on the track. They were first and third in the two mile. Robbie Osmers was second. W.B. took the first two spots in the mile. Matt Williams was third.

The Vineyard hurdlers took the first two places in highs (Flanders and Paquett-Whall) and lows (Asselin and Spencer).

The best M.V. could do in the sprints was third in the 100 (Chaplin) and second and third at 200m (Jackson and Rasmussen). Gurley and Yennie were 1-3 at 400 meters, and Russell took third in the 800.

The Islanders had to win both relays and they did.

Jahnas, Chaplain, Pilskaln, and Johnson won the 4x100. Yennie, Paquett-Whall, Kelley, and Osmers took the 4x400.

Girls also win

The Vineyard girls started strong in the field events, sweeping the shot and the discus: Alice Hopkins, Tiffany Smalley, and Ashely Medeiros in the shot; Hopkins, Emma Lee Iversen, and Loren Gibson with the discus.

West Bridgewater took all the points with the javelin and won all the jumps. Smalley was second at the high jump, Kimberly Carlomagno was third in the long. Schroeder was second at the triple jump.

Carlomagno won the 400, Katelyn Mahoney and Hilary Dreyer were 1-2 at two miles. Julia Sadowski's second was the best M.V. could do at a mile.

Iverson and Smalley were 1-2 over the low hurdles. Iverson and Gibson did as well in the highs.

Ashley Medeiros was third at 100 meters, and Alexia Schroeder was second at 200.

The Vineyard needed to win at least one of the relays. They did. Flanders, Carlomagno, Smalley, and Hopkins won the 4x400 at 4:40.

Final score: MV 70, WB 66.

Little League

The Tigers avenged their weekend loss to the A's by beating them in extra innings, Monday, 6-5. Stuart Hersh relieved and shut out the A's in the 5th through 7th innings, fanning seven, then doubled in the 7th and scored the winning run, driven in by Joe Bardwell. The Tigers are 2-2. The A's are 3-1.