Westwood Softball Roughed Up by Bellingham

After a dramatic seventh-inning comeback on Monday that saw the Wolverines (5-6) erase a five-run deficit and win in extra innings, they were faced with a similar situation on Thursday afternoon against Bellingham (6-3).

The difference, this time, was that the team happened to be facing one of the top pitchers in the Tri-Valley League, which resulted in a 12-1 loss. 

Sophomore GG Ricciardi, who finished 8-0 last season, picked up her fourth win this year and didn’t allow a Wolverine to cross the plate after the first inning.

“She’s definitely one of the better pitchers in the league, there’s no question about it, and she threw the ball well today,” said Westwood head coach Jonas Sherr. “She did a great job of changing the eye level of the batter. We chased a few up high, but she’s doing that on purpose.”

Ricciardi allowed seven hits and struck out seven Wolverine hitters and Bellingham head coach Dennis Baker gave most of the credit to her overwhelming fastball.

“This was probably the best she’s thrown her fastball,” Baker said. “If she can throw it well, it will set up her changeup and the fastball is something that’s still improving and will hope to get better by the end of the year.”

The lone Westwood run came in the first inning, when second baseman Keira Travers singled up the middle scoring Sheila O’Sullivan.

Liz Loftus started for the Wolverines and pitched well early, allowing three earned runs through five and keeping her team in the game. The sixth inning is where things started to unravel, as the Blackhawks batted around and tacked on five more runs, expanding the lead to 9-1.

“She was driving us crazy with her changeup and we’re a pretty disciplined team,” said Baker. “She was fooling us the whole game but we finally caught up to her. We moved up on the plate a little bit and we just told them to keep the ball in play and maybe something’s going to happen.”

The rest of the offense for Westwood was provided by Rachel Masotta and Leigha Valentine, who each had two singles, and Sheila O’Sullivan, who tripled and singled.

The Wolverines will travel to Medway on Friday to makeup a game form earlier this week.