Dighton-Rehoboth keeps rolling, downs Danvers in softball semis

REHOBOTH – In its first state semifinals since 2006, Dighton-Rehoboth battled back after an early hole to take down a tough Danvers team Monday night.

A nine-run second inning fueled Dighton-Rehoboth to a 15-6 win over Danvers in the Div. 2 state semifinals. The Falcons will play Tyngsboro in the Div. 2 state championship on Wednesday.

“It’s such an incredible feeling,” said D-R coach Katie Holmes, in her first year as the head coach. “I am so lucky to walk into this program in the height of what it is. … To be able to come out here and do what we do every day with this group of girls is incredible.”

Dighton-Rehoboth (12-1) sent 12 batters to the plate in the bottom of the second with an RBI single for Caleigh Cloonan to knot it 2-2 before freshman Lucy Latour gave her squad the lead for good at 4-2. Junior pitcher Eliana Raposo made it 7-2 and a couple more scored on a Danvers error to make it 9-2 after two.

“We’ve watched some film and we were like, ‘We can hit this pitcher, we can,’” Raposo said. “It was just a matter of getting on the ball early and getting a read on it — make contact and hopefully they fall. Once they started falling, we were on a roll.”

From there, Dighton-Rehoboth scored at least one run in every frame, including three more in the fourth to open up a 13-2 advantage. Raposo finished 3-for-4 with three runs and three RBI. Latour went 3-for-5 with 3 RBI and two runs.

In the bottom of the fifth, Danvers (14-5) did not go away and scored four times – all unearned – to make it a 13-6 contest, but Raposo settled in nicely other than that after Danvers took a 2-0 lead on a Lily Eldridge homer to left.

“Eliana is so consistent and so relentless,” Holmes said. “She gets down, but is never out. She comes back ten times harder. You put her down and she comes back ten times harder every single time. We could not start anyone better on the mound.”

Raposo ended up going the distance with 15 Ks and only one earned run.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3h4DJA2