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Sports

King Philip Softball Bats Erupt Again

Warriors score four runs in the top of the first in Franklin and go on to win, 9-0.

In the season opener, Franklin and King Philip battled for 6½ scoreless innings
before Anna O’Neill hit a grand slam to give the Warriors the win. 

This time around, the visiting Warriors were not playing games and sent 10 batters to the plate in the opening inning. They would score four runs on five hits and never look back, taking a 9-0 Hockomock League victory.

The win improves KP to 11-2, while Franklin falls to 6-7. In their last six games, the Warriors have outscored their opponents, 50-0.

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“We were ready to play,” KP Coach Jim Leonard said. “We kind of had a score to
settle, as we didn’t think we put our best effort in the first time around. The girls practiced hard leading up to this game.”

The game-winning run came across in the form of KP pitcher Meg Rico. The Warrior hurler opened the contest with a base hit off Elizabeth Criscione, her Franklin counterpart, moved to second on a Hailey Mullen sacrifice, stole third base and scored the team’s first of four runs in the top of the first thanks to a Meg Carnase RBI groundout. 

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With two out and nobody on, the Warriors then went on a rampage, scoring three runs, thanks in part to three singles off the bats of Olivia Godin, Cayleigh
McCarthy and Shannon Jones.

Tori Constantin had a two-run home run that would have been an out, but Franklin’s Haley Medeiros couldn’t hold onto the ball and dropped it over the fence. Anna O’Neill would reach base on an error and come around for the fourth and final run of the inning.

“We didn’t come to play today,” Franklin Coach Kate Fallon said. “They definitely brought their 'A' game. I’ll take nothing away from them, they came ready to play.”

As Rico was cruising along, as usual, her teammates continued to keep the pressure on Criscione, drilling pitch after pitch for base hits. King Philip went down quietly in the second and third innings before batting around again in the fourth, putting the game away. 

With two outs and Amy Nolan on second after a walk and stolen base Meg Carnase banged out a base hit leaving runners on the corner. Catcher Olivia Godin would clear the bases with a three-run homer to center field and Constantin would add the fourth run when she scored from third on a wild pitch despite the short distance behind home plate.

 “The homeruns help, but I think that we’re coming into form a little bit in terms of what we’re doing on the base paths,” the KP skipper said. “We know what we’re going to get from Rico every game, and at this point of the season, she’s hitting on all cylinders.”

Coach Fallon agreed with Leonard’s assessment of Rico.

“You can’t start the game off in a hole, you’re not going to score that many runs off her to begin with,” she said. You can’t give them four runs and expect to compete — you can’t.”

The Warriors would close out the scoring in the fifth inning on Constantin’s third
RBI of the afternoon chasing home Mullen.

The hitting stars in the victory were Rico (2-5 with a run scored), Godin (2-2 with two runs scored and three RBI) and Constantin (3-4 with two runs scored and three RBI). On the mound, Rico ended with 12 strikeouts, two walks and one hit, a sharply hit single off the bat of Michaela Criscione to lead off the bottom of the seventh inning.  

Franklin is due back in action this afternoon, while KP travels to Mansfield on Wednesday.

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