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Methuen wins own invite again

METHUEN — The Methuen softball team is primarily young, but don't let that fool you.

So said senior captain Coralie Mathieu after the Rangers won the Methuen Invitational for the fifth straight year Saturday night, holding off MVC rival Andover, 13-9.

"We're a younger team but I have a lot of confidence in all of our players," said Mathieu. "I had no doubt that we would win the tournament."

One of those Rangers' youngsters, sophomore shortstop Nyah Mazzone, exudes confidence with her play, which has been outstanding the last week and earned her the team MVP for the tournament.

After hitting a two-run homer and double against Whittier in the first round 8-6 victory, Mazzone was 3 for 5 with an RBI and two runs scored in the championship game. One of her outs was a deep drive to right field that yielded an outstanding catch by Andover's Callie Wiley.

"We had a lot of contributions, but Nyah desverved to be our MVP," said Methuen coach Jason Smith, whose club improved to 14-6. "She is really hitting the ball."

 But there were indeed many other contributions by the younger Rangers, inckudibng in Methuen's eight-run first inning that seemed to deal Andover an early knockout blow.

Although aided by two walks, two errors and a hit-by-pitch, sophomore first baseman Cori Rizzo (2 for 3) came through with a two-run triple and freshman Claudia Crowe delivered an RBI double.

Two moire errors, another walk and a second hit-by-pitch helped provide Methuen with five more runs in the second, giving it a commanding 13-3 lead. The rout seemed to be on.

But Andover sophomore pitcher Ashley Cocchiaro settled down after that, giving up no runs and just four hits over the next four innings and the Warriors started playing much better, scoring twice in the fourth and adding four more runs in the seventh.

"You have to give Andover credit," said Smith. "They can hit the ball and we weren't looking forward to playing them again. This game was a lot like the first two (11-7 and 9-8 wins).

"And winning two games in one day is tough. I give a lot of credit to (sophomore pitcher) Jillian (McCoy) for winning both."

In order to advance to the championship game, the Rangers needed to complete Friday night's suspnded game against Whittier and it wasn't easy. Trailing 7-1, the Wildcats scored five runs in the fifth before falling 8-6.

Whittier did rebound later in the day to defeat Amesbury 3-1 behind sophomore pitcher Nicole Verrette. She threw a four-hitter, striking out six, and was 3 for 3 at the plate with two RBIs.

The win improved the Wildcats to 17-2 with one game left in the regular season, at noon today against Greater Lowell.

"We almost had them (Methuen) but just one or two innings hurt us," said Whittier coach Cheryl Begin. "But I thought we played pretty well."

For Andover (7-12), which faces Lexington at noon today in its season finale, there were certainly bright spots.

Trusted third baseman Meg Hartnett was solid all around and was named the team's tourney MVP, sophomore shortstop Alexa Pacy was 2 for 4 with two RBIs and junior Katherine Powers was 2 for 4 with two RBIs and two runs scored. The Warriors actually outhit Methuen, 14-11.

"Tonight, we proved we can hit the ball," said Andover coach Steve Tisbert. "We had been playing clean ball but we just had some errors that hurt us. But I'm really proud of the way we competed."