Brattleboro girls’ lacrosse coach Morgan Derosia huddles with her senior players before they the field for one last shift during the Senior Day game against Stratton Mountain School on May 31 at Natowich Field. Brattleboro won the game, 18-3, and will face BFA-St. Albans in the first round of the Division I playoffs on June 5.
Randolph T. Holhut/The Commons
Brattleboro girls’ lacrosse coach Morgan Derosia huddles with her senior players before they the field for one last shift during the Senior Day game against Stratton Mountain School on May 31 at Natowich Field. Brattleboro won the game, 18-3, and will face BFA-St. Albans in the first round of the Division I playoffs on June 5.
Sports

Spring playoffs begin for local teams

-Playoff pairings have been announced for high school baseball, softball, tennis, and Ultimate disc in Vermont. Here's what the local teams are doing this week.

• In baseball, Brattleboro (8-8) earned the No. 11 seed in Division I. On June 4, they went north to play No. 6 St. Johnsbury (11-5) in a first-round game and won, 2-1. The Bears now face No. 3 Champlain Valley in the quarterfinals on June 7 in Hinesburg.

Bellows Falls (9-6) is the No. 2 seed in Division III. The Terriers got a bye into the quarterfinals and will host the winner of the Richford-Hazen first-round game on June 7 at Hadley Field.

Despite a 2-14 record, Twin Valley is the No. 8 seed in Division IV and will host No. 9 Stratton Mountain School (0-9) in a first-round game on June 4.

With an 8-8 record, Leland & Gray got the No. 6 seed in Division IV and a bye into the quarterfinals. The Rebels will travel to Proctor to face the No. 3 Phantoms (12-4) in a quarterfinal game on June 7.

• In softball, Bellows Falls (11-5) got the No. 2 seed in Division II. The Terriers will host the winner of the Windsor-Winooski first-round game in a quarterfinal

Losing only two seniors means that the Bears will be returning the rest of their starters, including starting pitcher Rose Stone and catcher Kayli Speno. Cooke hopes the players who return next season can build upon the lessons learned this season. "They can all walk away knowing that it's not what you can do as an individual, it's what you can achieve as a team."

The other Senior Day was on May 31 at Natowich for the girls' lacrosse team. The Bears ended the regular season with an 18-3 win over Stratton Mountain School. There were a lot of players to say goodbye to: Ally Foard, Ava Ferencz, Sophia Hamm, Eva Gould, Alora Lawyer, Zadie Olmstead, Rosalie Smith, Montana Frehsee, and Mallory Newton.

Head coach Morgan Derosia will be losing half of her current roster at graduation. She singled out her seniors for improving communication between each other on and off the field, which led to improved play and set a good example for the younger players.

"It affects every aspect of the game," said Derosia. "We're heading into the playoffs with energy."

Senior bowling roundup

• Week 5 of the spring/summer season of the Brattleboro Senior Bowling League at Brattleboro Bowl on May 30 saw first place Half Normal (19-6) and Slo Movers (15.5-9.5) remain in first and second place, respectively. Split Happens (15-10) took sole possession of third place, followed by Three Musketeers and Fab 4 (both 14-11), Spare Change (13-12), Misguided (11.5-13.5), Hi Rollers (9-16), and Stayin' Alive (8-17).

Vicki Butynski had the women's high handicap game (236), while Nancy Dalzell had the high handicap series (658). Pete Cross had the men's high handicap game (263) and series (683). Spare Change had the high team handicap game (882) and series (2,540).

For the third week in a row, Chuck Adams had the men's high scratch series (613) with a 258 game. John Walker had a 611 series with games of 214 and 209, while Robert Rigby had a 591 series with games of 209 and 203. Marc Shelly had a 579 series with a 212 game, Warren Corriveau Sr. had a 532 series with games of 194 and 190, and Milt Sherman had a 541 series with a 190 game. Skip Shine had a 503 series and Cross had a 192 game.

Dalzell had the women's high scratch series (499) and game (182). Carol Glosski had a 171 game, while Pam Greenblott had a 165 game.


Randolph T. Holhut , deputy editor of this newspaper, has written this column since 2010 and has covered sports in Windham County since the 1980s. Readers can send him sports information at news@commonsnews.org.

This Sports column by Randolph T. Holhut was written for The Commons.

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