Girls lacrosse clinches postseason berth
The Marblehead High girls lacrosse team (8-3 in the Northeastern Conference, 6-2 in the Dunn Division, 10-6 overall) is in the state tournament after defeating visiting Masco on May 14, 10-6. For numerologists, everything appears to be aligning for these Magicians, who won by the same score as its record after this game.
According to the May 16 Division 2 power rankings, the Marblehead girls are the 24th seed. There are 54 teams in the division.
Kathryn Commoss (2 goals), Gretchen Smith (1 goal, 1 assist), Caitlyn Ryan (2 goals), Zoe Dwyer (1 goal, 1 assist), Ramona Gillett (2 goals, 1 assist) and Maddie Forbes (2 goals, 1 assist) factored into the offense against the Chieftains. Goalie Molly Bullard made 11 saves to help secure the win.
The Magicians began last week on the road at Peabody, where the Tanners took control of the game early to win going away, 18-7. They led at halftime, 12-3.
Commoss (1 goal), Smith (1 goal), Ryan (1 goal), Dwyer (1 goal), Gillett (1 goal) and Forbes (2 goals, 2 assists) accounted for the team’s offense. Bullard was busy in net, coming up with 14 saves.
Ace softball pitcher reaches milestone
The Marblehead High softball team (13-2) played two games last week, winning two of them. They defeated Danvers (4-1, May 12) and Latin Academy (1-0, May 15), but lost to host Beverly on May 14, 4-2.
According to the May 16 Division 2 power rankings, the Magicians are seeded 14th. There are 62 teams statewide in this division.
In the game against Danvers, junior ace pitcher Tessa Francis struck out 11 in the circle, and while contributing a double on offense. All-star catcher Luka Bornhorst paced the offensive attack with a single and a double. She accounted for two RBI.
The game against Latin Academy turned into a pitchers’ duel. Francis once again did her part to befuddle the opposing batters, fanning 15, while scattering two hits over seven innings. Her Boston Latin counterpart Camryn Collier allowed five hits and one run, and whiffed six.
Bornhorst tripled home Lucy Rogers which turned out to be the winning run in the second inning.
Besides recording another win, Francis ended the game in style with a strikeout, her 500th career whiff with still five regular season games still left on the schedule and a whole another year ahead of her in 2026.
After blanking Winthrop, the baseball Magicians just one game away from postseason
As the regular season winds down, many high school teams like the baseball Magicians (5-8 in the Northeastern Conference, 9-10 overall) have been scrambling to make-up previously postponed games, because of the frequent rainouts this spring.
For example, coach Mike Giardi’s squad had to play five games in six days last week, coming away with two wins. Going into this week, they are scheduled to play the more conventional two games, which sets up must wins in both cases to qualify for the postseason. But there’s some good news through this maze of games, they have already defeated Winthrop, 4-0 on May 19, which sets the stage for the possible tournament clincher against non-league Bishop Fenwick on Friday afternoon, May 23, at Seaside Park, starting at 4 p.m.
After the Magicians defeated host Swampscott, 3-1 on May 10, they remained on the road the next two days at Gloucester and Danvers, where the Fishermen came out on top, 9-3, before the Falcons pinned an agonizing 6-5 loss on them. After a much-needed day off, they traveled to Beverly to face the Panthers on May 12. But the results weren’t much better, when the home team took care of the Marblehead boys, 8-5. On the very next day, however, they wrapped up the road trip with a very satisfying 4-0 shutout win over the Masconomet Chieftains.
In that Gloucester game, the visitors jumped out on top with two runs in the first, before limiting the Fishermen to one run, despite putting the first three batters on in the home half.
Throughout the rest of the game, it didn’t get any better. “We gave up too many free passes and too many extra outs in this game against a solid Gloucester team, and that’s not going to cut it,” said Giardi afterwards.
The Fishermen scored three more big runs in the fourth as a result of mistakes in the field. But Marblehead got back to within one with two in the fifth, before the Fishermen pulled away with five when they came to the plate.
The Magicians collected six hits against Gloucester, including a double by Stefan Shepard to account for their lone extra base hit in the game. Colt Wales paced the offensive attack with two singles and one RBI. E.J. Wyman singled in two runs. Cam Quigley and Greyson Leventhal each singled once.
It was then time for Danvers, but those results were even more heartbreaking. Giardi pretty much summed up this game the same way. “We just keep on coming up short both offensively and defensively, and once again free passes and extra outs hurt us,” he said. “We hung tough, but just couldn’t get that one big play on either side that would have put us over the top.”
The Falcons took a 1-0 lead in the first, but the Magicians came right back in the second with three runs to overcome that slim early deficit. But the home team regained the advantage with one in the home half of the second, and four more in the third. The Magicians kept on battling, however, with a run in both the fifth and sixth innings to cut the home team’s lead to one, only to come up short by one slim run.
The visitors managed seven hits in this game. Shepard helped lead the way with a three-run double. Wales was credited with a single and a double, knocking in one run. Ian McComish, Owen Coyne, Quigley and Leventhal had one single apiece.
After McComish pitched the first three innings, Madden Lyons (2 innings, 1 hit, 2 walks, 0 runs, 3 strikeouts) and Coyne (1 inning, 3 strikeouts) went the rest of the way on the mound to keep their teammates close on the scoreboard.
There was more frustration from the Beverly game. “We just can’t seem to put it all together,” said Giardi. “We had some great plays at times on defense to go along with some solid at-bats, but crucial mistakes came back to bite us, once again.”
The Magicians jumped out to a 2-0 lead after one, but that soon became 2-1 after two. At that point, things got rather “spicy,” according to Giardi. “We just couldn’t come up with the big defensive play, which allowed Beverly to get five in the third to take a 6-2 lead,” the coach added.
The Magicians did fight back with three in the fifth to trim the deficit to one, only to see the Panthers score twice more in the home half to account for the final score.
But there was some positive news, despite another loss, according to Giardi. Madden Lyons (3 innings, 2 hits, 1 walk, 6 runs, 1 earned, 2 strikeouts) and Sawyer Adams (1.1-innings, 2 hits, 3 walks, 2 runs), both freshmen pitchers, did their job to keep their teammates in the game. Coyne followed them to the mound, going 1.2-innings. He yielded just three hits, while fanning three.
The Marblehead offense scratched out only four hits, led by Will Dephillips, who had a double. Aidan Downey, Wales and Leventhal each singled once.
But the Marblehead boys finally got a win to close out last week, shutting out host Masco to keep their postseason dreams alive.
The game was scoreless going into the seventh inning, before the Magicians broke through with four to secure the win.
Senior Carter Sahagian (7 innings, 3 hits, 0 walks, 0 runs. 10 strikeouts) , the team’s ace, went the distance on the hill to propel his teammates to victory.
“The good plays started early for us on a great defensive catch by Owen Coyne in right field, which really set the tone in this game,” said Giardi.
Coyne and Downey got the offense going with singles in the seventh, followed by a two-run single by Wales. Downey also had a double, the team’s lone extra base hit in the game, and was credited with one RBI. E.J. Wyman, Leventhal, Coyne and Shepard chipped in with one single apiece.
