Alvirne Softball Sputters to Finish Season at 5-13, Missing Playoffs

Entering the week, Alvirne’s softball team controlled their own destiny and knew that if they managed to win all three of their games throughout the course of the week, they were guaranteed a spot in the playoffs. They even had a somewhat winnable game against Keene to open the week before hosting Londonderry on Wednesday and traveling to Merrimack on Friday to close out the regular season.
Unfortunately for the Broncos, the Blackbirds came to town on Monday ready to play, showing the version of Keene that beat a solid Windham squad and upset powerhouse Exeter, as the Blackbirds scored early and often and defeated the Broncos 12-0 by way of the mercy rule, spoiling Alvirne’s senior night in which Alvirne celebrated their three seniors, Ashleigh Ducharme, Jenna Kulick, and Alyssa Abbott.
Keene scored early and often against starter Ashleigh Ducharme, as she allowed three runs in the first and four in the second before Alvirne’s manager Becky Radziewicz made the move to put Pooler in the circle to finish out the second frame.
Pooler went on to allow five more runs to the Blackbirds in Keene’s final three turns at bat, all of which came in the fourth inning, leading to a quick, five-inning finish in the 12-0 Bronco loss. Fortunately, thanks to losses by teams that were chasing Alvirne, including Trinity-West, Dover, and Portsmouth, Alvirne kept control of their own destiny despite the loss.
On Wednesday, Alvirne played host to the Londonderry Lancers in a scorcher of a game in which the Lancers crushed the Broncos 14-0.
Londonderry jumped out to an early lead after Flaherty singled to left to bring Browning home and Campo hit a two-run homer in the top half of the first. The Lancers would tack on one more in the inning as well as four more in the second inning off Pooler.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the ball, Liv Cutuli was dealing for Londonderry, shutting the Bronco bats down from the first pitch of the ballgame. Cutuli threw just 19 pitches in each of the first two frames, following that up with a ten-pitch third inning, bringing her three-inning total to just 48. Pooler, on the other hand, had allowed ten runs through three innings and thrown 93 pitches.
Londonderry added four more runs in the fourth inning before pulling Cutuli. Austen would pick up right where Liv left off, however, keeping the streaky Bronco bats at bay, and completing the second straight shutout against Alvirne, slamming the door on the Lancers’ 14-0 win.
Fortunately for Alvirne, thanks to a Portsmouth loss on Thursday evening, Alvirne still controlled their own destiny on Friday, only needing a win against Merrimack to sneak into the playoffs.
The Broncos and Tomahawks battled early with Alvirne jumping out to a 1-0 lead in the visitors’ half of the first inning after Niyah Stroming singled with two outs and scored on a Kenzy Pooler RBI double.
Merrimack got the run back quickly off Ashleigh Ducharme on an Aiden Hui RBI groundout.
Alvirne then tacked on two runs in their half of the third inning to take a 3-1 lead after Alyssa Abbott reached on an error and scored on a Niyah Stroming RBI hit. Kenzy Pooler would then double to score Cory Sevigny to make it 3-1 Alvirne.
Merrimack quickly tied the game at 3-3 in their half of the third inning before Aiden Hui found herself in a groove in the latter half of the ballgame, shutting the Broncos down in their final three turns at the plate.
Merrimack scored two runs in the fifth and five in the sixth, eliminating Alvirne from playoff contention for the first time since before the pandemic. Alvirne finishes the season at 5-13 as a team that could have made some noise if it weren’t for some bad losses throughout the year.

Newsletter Updates

Enter your email address below and subscribe to our newsletter

Stay informed and not overwhelmed, subscribe now!