The most impressive part of the Noble and Greenough softball team win over rival Milton Academy on Friday afternoon may have come before a pitch was even thrown.
In a pregame ceremony, first-year coach Bob Goyette gave a rose to each of his seniors. He only needed to hand out two.
That’s a scary proposition for the rest of the Independent School League as the Bulldogs rolled to a 13-5 victory to claim the league crown and complete an unbeaten 13-0 season. It is the first ISL title since Nobles was tri-champs in 2002 and believed to the program’s first undefeated campaign.
“I knew coming into the year that we had a boatload of talent and it was just matter of those kids maturing and getting to the point where they can dominate game and make their presence felt, and the sophomores and junior really came of age this year,” said Goyette.
Nobles batted around in both the first and fourth innings, scoring six runs in each frame on its way to a 13-0 edge before the Mustangs, which entered with a chance to share the league title with the Bulldogs, finally made some noise with a five-run seventh inning.
Nora Kelly was on base all four times with two hits and two walks, scoring three runs, while leadoff hitter Michelle Picard also reached base safely four times. Dedham’s Sarah Duncan doubled twice for the Bulldogs, who rapped out 13 hits in all.
Nobles seized control from the very start. After Bulldog ace Tori Goyette set Milton down in the order in the first, Nobles went right to work on Milton’s Isa Gell-Levey as Picard drew a walk and Duncan blasted a ball to deep left that just caught the top of the mesh fence – a foot away from a two-run blast – settling for an RBI double and a 1-0 lead.
Katie Puccio scored Duncan with a sacrifice fly, and the Bulldogs got things restarted immediately as Goyette was hit by a pitch. An RBI single by Marissa Gedman made it 3-0 and Kelly went opposite field for an RBI triple for a 4-0 edge.
An error brought home the fifth run and Picard capped things with a base hit to right that scored Hannah Roman, one of the two Nobles seniors along with Kristen Giandomenico, to make it 6-0.
“Our offense is built around baserunning, we can be pretty dynamic when we get the ball in play, and that basically what happened in the first inning,” said coach Goyette. “We ran the bases and put a lot of pressure on them, got a couple of big hits and settled the game down on defense by making the routine plays.”
The most impressive part of the Noble and Greenough softball team win over rival Milton Academy on Friday afternoon may have come before a pitch was even thrown.
In a pregame ceremony, first-year coach Bob Goyette gave a rose to each of his seniors. He only needed to hand out two.
That’s a scary proposition for the rest of the Independent School League as the Bulldogs rolled to a 13-5 victory to claim the league crown and complete an unbeaten 13-0 season. It is the first ISL title since Nobles was tri-champs in 2002 and believed to the program’s first undefeated campaign.
“I knew coming into the year that we had a boatload of talent and it was just matter of those kids maturing and getting to the point where they can dominate game and make their presence felt, and the sophomores and junior really came of age this year,” said Goyette.
Nobles batted around in both the first and fourth innings, scoring six runs in each frame on its way to a 13-0 edge before the Mustangs, which entered with a chance to share the league title with the Bulldogs, finally made some noise with a five-run seventh inning.
Nora Kelly was on base all four times with two hits and two walks, scoring three runs, while leadoff hitter Michelle Picard also reached base safely four times. Dedham’s Sarah Duncan doubled twice for the Bulldogs, who rapped out 13 hits in all.
Nobles seized control from the very start. After Bulldog ace Tori Goyette set Milton down in the order in the first, Nobles went right to work on Milton’s Isa Gell-Levey as Picard drew a walk and Duncan blasted a ball to deep left that just caught the top of the mesh fence – a foot away from a two-run blast – settling for an RBI double and a 1-0 lead.
Katie Puccio scored Duncan with a sacrifice fly, and the Bulldogs got things restarted immediately as Goyette was hit by a pitch. An RBI single by Marissa Gedman made it 3-0 and Kelly went opposite field for an RBI triple for a 4-0 edge.
An error brought home the fifth run and Picard capped things with a base hit to right that scored Hannah Roman, one of the two Nobles seniors along with Kristen Giandomenico, to make it 6-0.
“Our offense is built around baserunning, we can be pretty dynamic when we get the ball in play, and that basically what happened in the first inning,” said coach Goyette. “We ran the bases and put a lot of pressure on them, got a couple of big hits and settled the game down on defense by making the routine plays.”
It was Picard again who kicked things off in the six-run fourth with single and Duncan followed with a double to the left field gap to put runners on second and third. Puccio stroked a hot shot to third that was stabbed by Milton’s Alana Dovner. She came home with the throw but it pinged off the helmet of the sliding Picard and got away, scoring both runners.
A walk to Hannah Graham and a Marissa Gedman single loaded the bases and the Bulldogs pushed two runs across on the same wild pitch with Kelly at the plate. A Roman RBI single added another tally, and Nobles had a commanding 12-0 lead.
Milton reliever Caitlin Hickey fared better in the circle, allowing just one run in her two innings of work on a Picard sacrifice fly in the seventh.
In stark contrast, Goyette cruised through the first six innings, allowing just four hits – all of the infield variety – to a Milton team that had averaged more than 10 runs per game in ISL play this spring. The junior fanned six on the afternoon, most coming on a devastating changeup, and did not walk a batter in earning her 13th win of the season.
The Mustangs finally began to solve her in the seventh, loading the bases with three straight singles to start the inning. Nobles nearly turned a 5-2-3 double play but the throw was not handled at first to get Milton on the board.
Milton scored another run a comebacker to the mound, then kept things going with an RBI single from Hickey and a two-run triple from Jane Ghublikian that made it 13-4. Sophia Rabb looked like she would extend the inning with a sharply hit ball of the glove of Graham at third that tricked into shallow left and scored a run, but Gedman, who had shifted from second to the outfield in the inning, charged in to grab the ball and gunned to second, catching Rabb trying to take the extra base for the final out.
“It’s an awesome way to wrap it up, they are a very good, good team and you saw that in the last inning,” said coach Goyette of the Mustangs. “They just won’t die, that’s been their season all year long. We were pretty fortunate to get a big chunk on them in the first inning, to put six on the scoreboard in the first inning really set a tone.
“Hopefully, everyone will come back next year and we’ll go from there,” added Goyette, “For now, we’ll enjoy it.”
