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North Reading turning season around

Monday, May, 09 By Jeff Hamrick

NORTH ANDOVER — After opening the season losing five of its first eight games, North Reading might have found the right combination to winning softball.

With starter Terry Ferrazzani throwing strikes and her infield making the plays behind her, the Hornets won their third straight yesterday afternoon with a 5-0 victory over North Andover.

Ferrazzani, a sophomore right-hander, threw strikes on all but 25 of her 81 pitches while striking out seven and North Reading (6-5) recorded nine ground-ball outs while committing one error. The Hornets also threw out two runners with catcher Dana Amirault throwing out a would-be base stealer and tagging out a runner at the plate on a come backer to Ferrazzani, who didn’t walk a batter until two outs in the seventh.

“We concentrate on defense and strong pitching,” North Reading coach Rusty Russell said. “Then hopefully our offense will take care of itself, and today that’s what happened. We executed well with both the bunt and timely hits. And Terry was just terrific for us.”

While North Reading was playing near flawless ball, North Andover (4-7) was making things easier for the Hornets with seven errors which resulted in five unearned runs.

North Reading scored two in the first and single runs in the third, on an RBI fielders choice by Merri Morse, fourth and sixth innings. The only other Hornet RBI came on Alicia McCauley’s bunt in the first. Despite the lack of run-scoring hits, North Reading did manage nine singles, including two by Shelby Carney and Kirsten Morrison.

“It was a good all-around win for us,” Russell said. “I think it’s a good stepping stone for us. We’ve won our last three, and I think we’ve solidified the positions. From here we’re just going to go forward.”

With three weeks left in the regular season, the perennial contending Hornets have now outscored their past three opponents by a combined 20-6 leaving them in good position for a playoff run.

“It was tough getting them to realize they were better than they thought they were,” Russell said of his squad’s slow season start. “Once they got over that hump they started to put their noses to the grindstone and play the way they can.”

The only hits North Andover managed off Ferrazzani were a one-out triple in the fourth by Haley Kosheff, who was then thrown out at the plate before Paige Alholm singled later in the inning.

“You have to make the plays you’re supposed to make,” North Andover coach Brian Martin said. “And that’s what we’re not doing right now ... North Reading played well today and Terry pitched a great game. But we didn’t make the plays. That should’ve been a 2-1 game. Every game we seem to have one or two innings where we just make a couple mistakes and it snowballs.”