Weymouth moves to softball Round of 16

BEVERLY The best way to start a tournament run is by going against a gang of equal strength On paper Sunday s Div softball tilt was billed as a showdown between th-seeded Beverly and No Weymouth Thanks to rising ace Jillian Ondrick the Wildcats coasted onward The junior tossed a complete competition allowing two runs neither earned to go with three hits while striking out as the Wildcats - clinched a trip to the Round of with a - win over the Panthers in their playoff opener We just did what we ve done all season declared Weymouth softball coach Vanessa Haen We have to treat each at-bat and each inning as its own individual piece What we ve been working on all season is picking each other up when we make mistakes We know we re going to make mistakes and that s OK But picking each other up and making sure that our mistakes don t compile and that we don t let them kill us I think that s what saved us in this contest being able to know that the rest of the players were going to make the next play no matter what happens Early on Ondrick unveiled herself in a pitchers duel with Beverly star Lidia Miedema It was in the third inning in which the Wildcats were able to capitalize as senior captain Paige Sellon blooped a single to center Two runs crossed and Weymouth drew first blood with a - advantage After Beverly - responded in the bottom of the fourth by plating a run Bella Pires stepped up to the dish in the top of the fifth for Weymouth The sophomore launched a moonshot to left-center which cleared the fence for a solo homer to provide the Wildcats a - edge I feel like it was a great association effort noted Ondrick We made the plays and we definitely hit the ball more than we usually do which was really good I think overall it was a great company effort Yet Beverly was not finished In the bottom of the sixth Athena McKenna laced an RBI double to left as the Panthers cut things to - In the company s final at-bat however Weymouth slammed the door shut on any hopes of a miraculous comeback After the Wildcats loaded the bases with one out Sellon drew a walk to push the lead to - Viv Palazzo followed with a two-run single and the Wildcats suddenly had broken things open in shocking fashion You cannot take your swings home noted Haen So their willingness to be aggressive to just swing at strikes and put them in play was huge We know our strengths and weaknesses The road does not ease up for Weymouth however The Wildcats will take on the state s top-ranked squad in undefeated Taunton next We re going to have to take at least the next minimal days to figure out what our plan is against Taunton revealed Haen Not that we were looking ahead of this competition but seeing Taunton so early was something that we know we got unlucky with So it s just honestly about fixing the little things Haen continued We beat teams that are really really strong Haen reported So seeing Taunton we know they re going to be strong But if we just keep doing the little things right we will be OK