Sports

The Kearsarge girls lacrosse team made a second straight run to the Division III state championship game this spring, and in doing so apparently opened some eyes around the league, as the Cougars placed six athletes on the lacrosse All-State teams.

Hopkinton was equally dominant in track and field, with four All-State honorees hailing from the girls team alone.

For Kearsarge, Chrissy Wolf and Abby Ross both earned First Team All-State mention in Division III after helping guide the Cougars to the final against Hollis-Brookline. It was there that they challenged the unbeaten Cavaliers for the better part of 30 minutes, turning in a memorable effort to cap the year.

Teammates Anysia Howell, Alanna Jablonski and Lindy Heffernan all earned Third Team honors, while Gemma Bready received Honorable Mention as a freshman, making her the only rookie to appear on any of the All-State teams for Division III.

As is so often the case, the local high school sports season closed down in the blink of an eye this spring. Two semifinal baseball contests and a state championship lacrosse duel, all featuring Villager sports teams, ended in defeat during a six-hour span one Wednesday afternoon and evening, shutting the door on three separate squads with championship aspirations.

Ah, but there’s always a consolation prize. And this one comes in the form of the annual Villager sports awards for the spring campaign. There is no physical award, of course, and the selection process consisted entirely of me sifting through the scenes I can recall from the season.

O.K., so maybe it’s little consolation. But it’s something … right?

Also, an editor’s note: These awards are for baseball and softball, because though I have come to thoroughly enjoy the game of lacrosse and have several superiorly talented teams and dozens of talented players to cover, I don’t trust my talent-judging skills enough to pick full teams of honorees. The All-State listings (in this issue) for that sport will have to suffice.

And, on with the show:

Baseball
Catcher: Travis Bennett, H-D

With the World Cup underway, soccer fever is infecting fans and players worldwide. Even here at home.

On Monday, the girl’s summer soccer team from Sunapee travelled to Claremont in a match that tested two young teams, not only in skills but in endurance. With temperatures in the eighties and humidity thickening the air, the battle was hard on the girls.

Losing several seniors from their varsity squad this year, the Claremont varisty team will need to replace its keeper, and a striker most significantly. Monday put some prospects to the test. The Sunapee team, sporting several incoming freshmen and sophomores was tentative with the ball on the net for the first several minutes, but kept every knock away from their own door, taking advantage of their veteran defense with incoming junior Liza Bourdon in goal.

A trio of baseball teams that made runs to the Final Four were rewarded with a combined total of five First Team All-State nods, as the ConVal, Hopkinton and Sunapee squads headlined the list of local honorees.

The John Stark softball team, meanwhile, paced that sport in local representation with a pair of first-teamers.

ConVal reached the Class I semifinals for the first time since capturing the state title in 2006, outlasting Kearsarge and blowing out Merrimack Valley before running into two-time defending state champion Portsmouth in the Final Four.

Pat Tempone and Kyle Fisher were named to the Class I First Team, with teammate Ty Sullivan earning Second Team recognition. Baxter Cohen was named to the third team. All four were key players for the Cougars for several seasons, helping ConVal to the postseason in each of the last three years.

Also in Class I, Kearsarge – who reached the postseason before losing to ConVal – saw infielder Mike Smith earn second team mention and pitcher/outfielder Tyler Jensen take third team honors.

All season long, it was the seven sophomores on the Hopkinton baseball roster in the limelight. They got all the press, all the praise, a full-length feature in the daily paper. And it was well deserved, as the Hawks climbed to a 14-2 mark due in large part to their contributions.

With one of those sophomores suddenly sidelined on the eve of a postseason in which the Hawks had legitimate championship hopes, though, Hopkinton coach Dave Chase turned to his three seniors and challenged them to step up.

Less than a week later those seniors were a combined 13-for-22 at the plate, had delivered two game-clinching hits in as many contests and had carried the Hawks to the Class M semifinals.

So what, exactly, would Chase call that?

“That’s stepping up,” Chase mused.

Anxiety would have been natural. Fear would have been understandable. Given the context, perhaps even expected.

Instead, the Kearsarge girls lacrosse team did its best to get even.

The Cougars stormed into the Division III championship game Wednesday night against the same Hollis-Brookline team that defeated them by 16 goals earlier this year and upended them for the state title a season ago, and promptly spotted the Cavaliers a 3-0 lead.

But there was no panic on the Kearsarge sideline. Instead the Cougars responded with four of the next six goals, getting as close as one at intermission.

That’s as far as the Cavaliers let them get, though. The defending state champs turned in a true lockdown performance at the defensive end after halftime, blanking the Cougars, and added five more scores for a 10-4 win that crowned them once more.

Regardless of the outcome, Kearsarge turned in one of its better efforts of the season, particularly in the first half. Goaltender Anna Jablonski was fabulous, blocking nine shots before halftime to match her counterpart in Hollis’ Lorin Field, who was equally dazzling.

It appeared that the Hopkinton baseball team entered Wednesday’s Class M semifinal showdown with Winnisquam employing a decidedly patient approach, ultimately watching the first 10 pitches of the day before taking a hack.

But to Hawks coach Dave Chase, the clock was already ticking.

Chase knew Winnisquam had junior ace Jordan Cote lurking in the bullpen, putting a premium on runs in the early going, and after Bears starter Nick Lyford wiggled out of trouble twice in the first three innings – including a bases-loaded situation in that first frame – he was able to hand a shutout-in-progress to Cote, who closed the door with five strikeouts to the last six batters he faced, capping a 2-0 win for the Bears that ended Hopkinton’s season on the doorstep of the state championship contest.

“We knew we had five innings to get some runs on the board,” Chase said. “It just seemed like every little thing [we hit turned into an out].”

There wasn’t a lot of analysis necessary for the ConVal baseball team following Wednesday’s 8-2 loss to Portsmouth in the Class I semifinals. The Clippers have now defeated 62 consecutive opponents, a string that includes playoff victories over the Cougars both last year and this year, and are working on their third consecutive state championship run.

“They’re a dominant team,” ConVal coach Mike Marschok said. “Our guys played hard, as hard as they probably could. But they are a very, very good team.”

In many ways it’s that simple. Portsmouth simply had too much pitching, even with No. 2 hurler Keegan Taylor on the hill, and more than enough offense, grabbing six runs in the first three innings en route to the triumph.

It was that third inning that turned the tide for good. Portsmouth swiped a pair of runs off ConVal starter Pat Tempone in the second, getting a fielder’s choice and a Nate Jones infield single to do so, but really erupted in the following frame to put Tempone on the ropes.

The site of the most stirring win in program history was literally right around the corner, a field of dreams less than a mile away. But it didn’t take long for the turf at Southern New Hampshire University to become a house of horrors for the John Stark girls lacrosse team on Monday night.

Less than five minutes before the bus pulled in for a semifinal showdown with No. 2 Kearsarge, John Stark coach John Warner received word that one of his top defenders – and the girl he built the bulk of his defensive game plan around – would not be available.

Once the team arrived and unloaded its equipment, it took two warm-up shots to crumple goaltender Amanda Charest to the ground with an agonizing ankle injury.

The Generals were indeed climbing uphill from before the opening whistle, and after spotting the Cougars a four-goal cushion in the first 15 minutes even a pair of gritty comebacks couldn’t make up the difference, as Kearsarge pushed through to the Division III championship with a 20-12 victory that was actually much closer than the score would indicate.

The Sunapee baseball team saw its run through the Class tournament end in the semifinals on Wednesday night, as the Lakers suffered a 9-4 loss to Portsmouth Christian.

That came on the heels of a triumph over Woodsville in the first round and an upset of Pittsfield in the quarters by a whopping 23-5 margin.

Prelims vs Woodsville
A two out double in the top of the sixth inning by the Woodsville boys may have concerned the Lakers of Sunapee in the Class S baseball tourney preliminaries, as the game remained scoreless. But the Laker boys made short work of a chopped infield shot to second and the third out was at hand, keeping the score at double goose eggs ... fitting for the Laker mascot of the Canada goose.

Making it all the way to the preliminary round of the playoffs, the Lakers had a lot to prove. And prove it they did. First baseman Nate Wirta was the first to set his stance at the plate to draw a walk at the bottom of the sixth. The lefty stole second with Troy Fulton in the box. A solid shot over the head of the second baseman took the first Laker across the plate when Fulton connected. Ben Lohmann then advanced Fulton with a sacrifice toward the mound.