The Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School (MVRHS) softball team celebrated Senior Day and their final home date of the season with a doubleheader sweep of John O’Bryant on Wednesday afternoon in Oak Bluffs. The Vineyarders (6-13), winners of three straight, tamed the Tigers from Roxbury, 28-5, in game one, and followed up with a 20-8 win in game two. Both contests were mercy-shortened, five-inning affairs.
In between the two games, the Vineyarders honored their lone senior, Summer Cardoza, who belted a two-RBI triple in the first inning of game one, and added four more hits on the day.
The Vineyarders got off to a blazing start in game one, scoring eight runs in the first inning, nine in the second, and two more in the top half of the third to build a 19-0 lead.
Emily Mello drove in four runs, with a homer in the second inning and a single in the fifth. Genevieve Hyland and Summer Cardoza had three hits apiece, Bethany Cardoza had two, and Tianna Rambonga and Emma Williamson, one each. The Vineyarders tallied 16 hits in all.
Winning pitcher Kya Maloney allowed five runs and five hits, and struck out five Tigers in five innings of work. She also helped her cause with a pair of hits.
O’Bryant scored the first run in game two, but the hosts responded with 12 unanswered runs, and would not trail again. The Tigers scored twice in the top half of the fourth, but the Vineyarders added eight runs in the bottom half, and withstood a five-run O’Bryant rally in the fifth to close out the win.
Emily Mello and Alyssa Strelecki each had three hits; Summer Cardoza, Genevieve Hyland, and Emma Williamson picked up a pair; and Ashley Brasefield, Hayleigh LeCoq, and Tianna Rambonga all knocked in runs in the fourth inning. With 14 more hits in the scorebook, MV totaled 30 in the twin bill.
Defensively, the Vineyarders were error-free in game two. Pitcher Eleanor Hyland went the distance to earn the win, allowing eight runs on five hits, while striking out five.
The Vineyarders finish the season at Sturgis East on Friday.
