ADDISON COUNTY — In area high school softball play late last week, Middlebury moved over .500 with a road win, Otter Valley split two road games, and Vergennes dropped two contests.
Mount Abraham hosted Rice on Thursday; see story.
TIGERS
The Tigers got help from the pitching of Payton Buxton and the hitting of Hannah Lawrence to get past host Champlain Valley, 15-2. Buxton tossed a complete-game three-hitter, striking out 14, and Lawrence went five-for-five, homered, and drove in two runs. Lily Smith added two hits, scored a run and drove in a run. MUHS (2-1) scored seven times in the seventh to put the game out of reach.
OTTERS
OV (2-2) took undefeated Springfield into extra innings before falling, 4-3, in the eighth. An infield dribbler with two outs in the bottom of the eighth snapped the 3-3 tie and gave the 5-0 Cosmos and pitcher Jade Twombly the win. Twombly, who had allowed a total of five hits in her four previous wins, allowed three hits and fanned 19.
Springfield took a 3-1 lead after five innings with OV’s run. Gabby Poalino singled and scored early on, and Char Winslow drilled a two-run triple in the sixth, but was thrown out a trying for a home run. Courtney Bushey took the pitching loss, striking out nine and allowing seven hits.
On Saturday, the Otters took another tough loss, 2-1, at Division I Brattleboro. The 3-0 Colonels scored both of their runs in the third off Bushey, who allowed six hits and three walks and struck out eight. The Otters managed five hits off winning pitcher Hannah Wilson, who fanned seven. Amy Jones drove in Katie Coolidge in the fifth.
COMMODORES
On Thursday, host South Burlington defeated the Commodores, 15-2. VUHS scored its runs in the seventh on singles by Emily Jackson,Sarah Rathbun andMegan Martin.Cheyenne Jewett-Myers tripled earlier in the game for VUHS.
On Saturday, the Commodores bounced back for their first win, 7-1 over visiting Randolph, as Martin tossed a two-hitter, striking out 13 and walking two.
Leading the attack were Jaymee Fulcher, with three hits and two runs; Nikki Salley, with two hits, two RBIs and two runs; and Rathbun, with two hits, a run and an RBI.