• Needham softball, boys lacrosse and boys volleyball dominated their opponents at home this week. Girls lacrosse and baseball dropped their home contests.
Three Needham High teams earned big wins at home, while the two others dropped tough games to Bay State Conference opponents.
Softball kicked things off Monday, April 6, defeating Weymouth 13-3 in five innings due to the mercy rule.
Sophomore Audrey Muzikant shined in the circle for Needham, striking out 12 batters and giving up just three runs and three hits.
She had plenty of run support from her teammates, as the Rockets put up 13 runs on 14 hits against Weymouth pitcher Maddie Smith.
Weymouth took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first with an RBI double from Abby Reed, but Needham responded by tying the game at one with an RBI single from Maddie Navales. Bella Pires hit a home run off Muzikant in the second inning, but Muzikant struck out two batters in the inning. The Rockets then scored seven runs in the bottom half of the inning to make it 8-1, highlighted by a two run double from Caitlyn Peters.
Muzikant struck out three batters in the top of the third, and the Rockets added two more runs in the bottom half of the inning to make it 10-2. She struck out three straight Weymouth batters in the fourth to preserve the Needham lead. Weymouth was able to score one run in the top of the fifth, but the Rockets answered with three runs of their own to end the game by mercy rule.
On Tuesday, April 7, boys lacrosse crushed Braintree 21-4 in a game that featured 10 different goal scorers.
Junior Matt Ledbury led the team with six goals, bringing his season total to 13.
Despite putting nine shots on net and controlling possession, the Rockets led just 2-1 at the end of the first quarter. But, they picked things up in the second, scoring six unanswered goals to take an 8-1 lead at halftime.
Needham was relentless in the second half, adding 13 more goals, while Braintree scored just three times. The Rockets outshot the Wamps 41-7 and controlled 18 face offs to Braintree’s eight. Finn Noon followed Ledbury with three goals, as Needham improved to 2-1 on the season.
The Rockets will host Lincoln-Sudbury on Saturday, April 11, at noon.
On Thursday, April 9, boys volleyball swept Weymouth for their fourth straight win, taking the match 25-19, 25-16 and 25-13.
The Wildcats kept it close early in the first, but the Rockets eventually found their rhythm without senior Matthew Cloonan, who was not present, to take it 25-19.
Needham trailed 10-7 in the second set, but after a timeout they went on a run to take the lead and pull ahead. They dominated the third set to complete the sweep of the Wildcats and improved to 4-0 on the season without dropping a set.
Girls lacrosse fell to Walpole 18-8 on Thursday, April 9, bringing their record to 2-3.
On Friday, baseball fell to Braintree 4-1 as the Rockets’ offense struggled against Wamps pitcher Mike Ryan. Needham scattered just three hits across seven innings, and did not score until the bottom of the seventh.
The Rockets used four different pitchers in the loss, but collectively struck out eight Braintree batters.
Braintree loaded the bases in the fourth inning and pushed their first run across on a bases loaded walk from Aiden Zahn. They added two more runs in the fifth and one more in the seventh to take the game 4-1.
Mike Levin has the highlights from softball’s win over Weymouth and boys lacrosse’s win over Braintree in the video box below:
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The highlights above ran as part of the Needham Channel News, a weekly newscast airing on The Needham Channel every Thursday at 7:30pm. The Needham Channel News can be found on the Community Channel: Comcast 9, Astound 15 and Verizon 29. Most Thursdays it also can be viewed on our HD Channel on Verizon 2129, Astound 613 and streaming on this site. |
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