Belmont Softball Hitting on All Cylinders in Big Victory Over Winchester

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Photo: Julia Rifkin running out her triple.

The bats, gloves and pitching were all working Monday, April 27, as Belmont High School Softball romped by visiting Winchester, 14-2, in a game shortened by an inning due to the 12-run rule.

First-inning home runs by co-captain junior catcher Meghan Ferraro (3 hits, 3 RBI, 2 runs) and junior first-base Irini Nikolaidis (2 runs) – both were the first for the players this season – highlighted a six-run opener for the Marauders, which scored in the bottom of each inning. 

That was enough for freshman pitcher Caroline MacLeod (four strikeouts) who limited the Sachems to eight hits over six innings, putting down the first nine Winchester batters she faced. She helped her own cause by singling in the fifth and throwing out a runner at the plate in the fifth.

The girls were showing off the leather, especially from junior third base Lia Muchjian and fellow junior Sofia Cellucci in left who made a fine running catch for the second out in the second. 

But it was the bats that certainly showed up for the Marauders’, who broke a five game losing streak, now with a 4-7 record. Included in the hit squad were Katrina Ruzzo, Muchjian and Celluci with 2 singles and a run each, Kate Lester (2-4 and a run) with a double in the bottom of the sixth and center fielder Julia Rifkin, who slugged an RBI triple in the fifth to go 3-4. 

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Snakebit: Belmont Girls’ Lacrosse Finds it Hard to Reach Win Column

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Photo: Belmont High School Girls’ Lacrosse 

Belmont High School Girls’ Lacrosse Head Coach Aimee Doherty knows her team is just that one … something so it can begin being on the right side of the win/loss column.

But every time it appears that the team has come close to solving the issues at hand, the team ends up looking at another defeat. 

It’s not like the Marauders are being skunked in each game. In the three previous games before its game against Newton North Saturday, April 25, Belmont was in the game until the final horn blast, before falling to Lexington (19-16), Reading (15-11) and Arlington (13-12). 

“Overall, we’ve been playing really hard and really well,” said Doherty, whose team has seven seniors and eight juniors. “But in the last two games, we’ve been missing half of our team which five are starters so that’s had a huge impact on our play.” 

On Saturday, the Marauders could have used as much fire power against a talented Div. 1 squad, ending up on the short side of a 16-5 loss.

Key players this year have been seniors Sophia Eschenbach-Smith and Elena Bragg along with juniors AnnMarie Habelow (2 goals Saturday), Katherine McCarthy (also 2 goals) and Kerri Lynch.

“The three biggest things we need to focus on which will help turn our game around are getting possession of ground balls, winning the draws (which occurs after every score) which is really hurting us and placing our shots. We are shooting at the right time but not hitting the right spots on goal,” said Doherty. 

 

 

Belmont Softball Finds the Going Tough Against Established Teams

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Photo: Junior third base Lia Muckjian.

After a quick start to the season, the Belmont High School Softball team took on the crucible of playing the better established softball programs in the Middlesex League which, it turned out, was a bit more than this young team was able to handle.

But unlike past years, the Marauder were competitive in each of most of the games during its four-game losing streak, including a 3-2 loss to non-league visitor, Cambridge Rindge and Latin, on a cold and breezy Thursday morning, April 23.

Belmont started off quickly with junior right fielder and lead off hitter Ani Hackett coming home with the game’s first run on junior shortstop Julia Rifkin‘s ground out.

Freshman pitching standout Christine MacLeod cruised through the CRLS Div. 1 squad in the first three innings, facing the minimum nine batters. But a two-out single in the fourth scored a pair for the Falcons in the top of the fourth to put them out ahead 2-1. 

On the Belmont side of the plate, despite singles by MacLeod, junior catcher Meghan Ferraro and second base Katrina Ruzzuto, the Marauders came up empty getting those players around to score.

In the bottom of the fifth, consecutive singles by junior third base Lia Muckjian, senior captain and first baseman Lauren Noonan and MacLeod brought in Belmont’s second run as Muckjian scored. But what appeared to be Belmont’s third run when Kate Lester, running for Noonan, seemingly beat out a wild pitch was taken back as she was called out by the umpire. (see photo here)

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Cambridge would retake the lead on two singles and a fielders choice and Belmont could not muster a challenge in their final at bats. 

The team is currently 3-6 with games on Friday, April 24, away at Lexington, and Monday, April 27, home vs. Winchester. 

Belmont Rugby Knocked About by BC High for First Loss

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Photo: Belmont Rugby.

Before the season began, Belmont High Rugby’s Head Coach Greg Bruce said he had heard rumblings that Boston College High School’s rugby club would be a challenger this year.

“BC High is coming into the season with high hopes,” said Bruce, noting that Belmont defeated BC High twice last season, including in last year’s playoff semifinals.

“But they’ve been really quiet about what they’re doing so that makes me wonder.” 

Bruce’s speculation of the Eagles’ aptitude was in evidence on a wind-swept field in Boston’s Columbia Point as Belmont came upon a highly physical BC High XV (for 15 players) that used its skill to win the ball after each tackle to take control of the match to defeat the visitors, 20-7, on Wednesday, April 15.

Belmont currently sports a 2-1 record against Division 1 teams, and 3-1 overall. 

After falling behind 5-0, Belmont’s senior captain Darren Chan faked out a defender and sped 25 meters for a five-point try (similar to scoring a touchdown) with Luke Gallagher kicking the two-point conversion to put Belmont out in front. 

But the host Eagles were able to take advantage of their superior skill at winning “breakouts” – the time after a tackle when players group over the ball to take possession of the ball – and not allowing Belmont to play its game of running its quick backs against its opponents.

While Belmont threatened BC through out the game, moving in close three times in the second half, BC High was able to make the stops they needed. A pair of late trys sealed the game in BC High’s advantage.

Belmont Rugby is currently on a week-long playing tour on the Algarve Coast of Portugal before meeting another historically-strong team, St. John’s Prep High School, on Wednesday, April 29, at 7 p.m. at Harris Field. 

Neither Wind Nor Hills Nor 26 Miles: Conroy is Belmont’s Swiftest Marathoner

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Photo: Charlie Conroy at Heartbreak Hill. (Courtesy photo)

The unofficial motto of the US Postal Service is “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”

In a slightly modified version of the postman’s code, Belmont resident Charlie Conroy didn’t allow the wind, rain, hills (both going up and down) and miles of asphalt prevent him from being the swiftest Belmontian participating in the 119th Boston Athletic Association Marathon.

On Monday afternoon, April 20, Conroy mastering the historic 26.2 mile route in three hours, two minutes and 40 seconds, in chilly conditions with a strong head wind and rain.

“I was very pleased with my race; I ran a Boston personal best this year. Again, given the poor weather, that was especially rewarding,” said the Channing Road resident, well known as a leader of Belmont Second Soccer.

Becca Pizzi was the first Belmont female resident to cross the finish line on Boylston Street in 3:28:11.

Conroy said he was spurred on by the race by seeing family and friends along the route.

“My family were watching at the top of Heartbreak Hill [in Newton], so that was all I could think about as I ran through the Newton Hills. It was great to see them and know that it was mostly downhill from there. I also saw several other friends from Belmont in Wellesley and Newton, so that was just great to hear their cheers of support,” he said.

“Given the terrible weather, the crowds were less than in prior years but we’re still very noisy in their support. They make this race so special. So I would like to thank all of the residents of Belmont, who were cheering along the course, they helped every runner through the hard patches along the route,” he said.

Conroy wanted to congratulate all those running on Monday as undertaking a marathon, “a huge achievement regardless of time.”

“I have equal admiration for the 2:10 Marathon champ and the 5:30 marathon competitor. Both were able to train for and run 26.2 miles,” said Conroy.

The Belmont finishers include:

  1. Charlie Conroy, 3:02:40
  2. John Carey, 3:05:20
  3. Damien Pinault, 3:14:55
  4. Becca Pizzi, 3:28:11
  5. Christina Pickering, 3:35:12
  6. Virginia Cox, 3:35:53
  7. Laurent Canneva, 3:36:42
  8. Glenn Imboywa, 3:37:50
  9. Carolyn Mehaffey, 3:50: 19
  10. Satomi Kato, 3:56:07
  11. Kelly Fanning, 4:01:18
  12. Kimberly Usseglio, 4:06:09
  13. Emily Seaver, 4:06:57
  14. Paul Firth, 4:08:09
  15. Cara Brickley, 4:14:09
  16. Peter Arsenault, 4:18:07
  17. Stefanie Baker, 4:36:28
  18. Apo Ashjian, 4:38:35
  19. Sarkis Chekijian, 4:38:36
  20. James Winter, 4:47:22
  21. Kaleigh Connors, 4:54:22
  22. Stephen Najarian, 5:04:06
  23. Carrie Palmer, 5:05:40
  24. Julie Holt, 5:27:03
  25. Richard Horgan, 5:28:26
  26. Kai Saukkonen, 5:30:59

Belmont High Baseball Unbeaten at Break Thanks to Another Late Game Win

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Photo: Cal Christofori pitching in relief in the 7th inning during Belmont’s 6-3 victory over Arlington, April 17. 

Like students who waits until the last minute to complete their work, the Belmont High School Baseball team has been biding their time until the late innings to eek out a pair of victories.

After Belmont snuck by Stoneham, 8-6, on Tuesday, April 14, the team scored four runs in the penultimate at-bat to defeat Arlington, 6-3, on Friday, April 17, at Grant Field in Belmont.

The wins, along with a blow out of Watertown in the season opener, sends the Marauders into the spring break undefeated, sporting a 3-0 record overall and in the Middlesex League and providing the players some needed confidence.

“The thing we preached in the beginning of the year was mental toughness and they are buying into it,” said Belmont Head Coach Jim Brown.

“They were losing a couple of games and it’s not phasing them and they are getting the bats going as well,” Brown said.

Friday’s heroics came the arm and the bat of Robbie Montanaro who threw two shutout innings in relief of starter Cole Bartels and stroked a two-out, two-run single to score Bartels and catcher Cal Christofori to push Belmont ahead, 5-4, after trailing by a run entering the bottom of the fifth.

Centerfielder Nick Riley’s double sent Montanaro home for the final run in the four-run fifth. 

Riley scored the first run in the second inning, scoring on Bryan Goodwin double.

Monanaro’s run scoring hit was part of the first-baseman/pitcher’s three-RBI day, having scored Bartels in the third with a single.

Christofori moved from catching pitches to throwing them to earn the save hurling a one-hit final inning.

It will be a busy time after the spring recess when Belmont plays on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of next week.

“We have four games the week we get back so they have to be focused like they’ve been so far,” said Brown.

Butler Reaches 150 Goals as Belmont Boys LAX (4-3) Down SpyPonders

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Photo: Trey Butler setting up to score his 149 goal in his high school career. 

Junior attack Trey Butler reached the 150 goal milestone as the Belmont High School Boys’ Lacrosse won its first Middlesex League match of the season, defeating Arlington High School, 17-11, in a chippy affair at Harris Field on Friday, April 18. 

“From freshman year, it’s been a team effort and it’s all part of the teammates passing me the ball and encouraging me every step of the way,” Butler told the Belmontonian after the game in which he scored four goals and two assists.

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“Last year there was a lot of pressure and it was hard not to get frustrated when things aren’t going your way,” said Butler, who is also a standout defender on the hockey team.

“But this year, we’ve been winning because everyone has been putting in a lot of work in the off season and it’s starting to pay off this year,” said Butler.

“Huge win of us,” said Belmont Head Coach Josh Streit after the win, lifting the program over .500 at 4-3. The SpyPonders drop to 2-4. 

“Arlington has been a rival for us in my tenure and they have played us very tough in the league so we knew this was a place for us to see to kind of see where we could stand and if we can make some noise,” said Streit. The win puts Belmont five victories from a return to the Eastern Mass. Div. 2 playoffs since 2011.

The match started off at a crawl, going more than half the first quarter before a pair of goals from junior Michael Cole (3 goals, 1 assist) and Butler’s first gave Belmont a 3-1 lead going to the second.

Goals by Cole, senior Samuel Bozkurtian (3 goals, 1 assist) and two from by Butler with outstanding defense from seniors Joseph Paolillo and Luke Paolcari along with junior Andrew Ballard allowed the Marauders to enter halftime with a 7-3 lead.

It was at 3:38 left in the third – in a half which saw a multitude of penalties calls – when Bozkurtian passed to Butler to the left of the goal, snapping the ball into the net to hit 150 goals as Belmont doubled its goals to take a 14-6 advantage into the final period.

After the game, Streit continued to speak highly of his team after a mid-week loss to Reading High, in which he discovered his team “could grind and have the grit to stay with everyone in the league.”  

Down 10-2 in the third quarter and unable to generate an offensive surge, the team “stood up for themselves”, grinding out four straight goals against the Rocket’s top squad, falling 12-8 but putting Reading on the back foot for the remainder of the game.

“We made people notice and they saw the heart of this team,” said Streit.

The squad’s next match will be against Dracut next Saturday. 

Belmont’s Fast Nobel Prize Winner Racing in Monday’s BAA Marathon

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Photo: The BAA Marathon.

It’s likely Wolfgang Ketterle will be the fastest Nobel Prize winner participating in Monday’s 119th Boston Athletic Association Marathon, but the 57-year-old academic could have another impressive distinction; first Belmontian to cross the finish line on Boston’s Boylston Street.

The MIT professor of physics, who with Eric Cornell and Carl Wieman were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2001 for their work on Bose–Einstein condensate, will be running with the low bib number 655.  Ketterle, who is a member of Somerville Road Runners, finished last year’s BAA race in 2 hours, 44 minutes and 6 seconds, good for 528th overall and third fastest runner in the 55-59 age group. 

“With science and running, you should never give up. You should challenge yourself and be willing to exhaust yourself. I like that, both in science and running,” Ketterle told Runner’s World when it profiled him in it’s “I’m a Runner” feature in 2009. 

In the past decade, the fastest Belmont master runner (those over 40 years old) was Robert Cipriano, who runs the marathon in the 2 hour, 40 minute range in his early 50s, but the long-time resident – and like Ketterle, a Somerville Road Runner – pulled up stakes to Brighton. 

In addition to Ketterle, 27 Belmont residents will hopefully be toeing the line in Hopkinton on what is likely a cool and cloudy day (although there will be a head wind). Find out if your neighbor will be racing (many for charity and causes) on Marathon Monday. 

Name, age, bib number 

  1. Peter Arsenault, 29, 28943
  2. Apo Ashjian, 58, 28793
  3. Stefanie Baker, 28, 31298
  4. Rachid Belhocine, 55, 11071
  5. Cara Brickley, 40, 29699
  6. Laurent Canneva, 37, 28397 (France)
  7. John Carey, 48, 5278
  8. Sarkis Chekijian, 41, 26400
  9. Kaleigh Connors, 24, 30565
  10. Charlie Conroy, 45, 2194
  11. Virginia Cox, 48, 23429
  12. Kelly Fanning, 37, 29181
  13. Paul Firth, 47, 30320
  14. Julie Holt, 33, 27895
  15. Richard Horgan, 61, 26017
  16. Glenn Imboywa, 28, 28713
  17. Satomi Kato, 49, 22623
  18. Wolfgang Ketterle, 57, 655
  19. Carolyn Mehaffey, 51, 24532
  20. Stephen Najarian, 59, 31462
  21. Carrie Palmer, 40, 25700
  22. Christina Pickering, 37, 16226
  23. Damien Pinault, 42, 8260
  24. Becca Pizzi, 35, 16965
  25. Kai Saukkonen, 52, 29973
  26. Emily Seaver, 30, 31440
  27. Kimberly Usseglio, 29, 27125
  28. James Winter, 43, 31342

Trio Leads Belmont Girls’ Track By Reading in Spring Opener

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Photo: 100 meters.

A pair of personal bests in the throws, two wins on the infield and a double in the sprints allowed Belmont High School Girls’ Spring Track to rocket by Reading High in the home opening meet on a warm and sunny Monday, April 13 at Harris Field.

With three events remaining, the Reading coaches came over to congratulate Belmont’s Head Coach Melissa Glotzbecker as the Marauders held a 72-45 point lead.

“This is a really great opportunity just to start off the season since we didn’t finish our first meet [due to a sudden snow storm],” said Glotzbecker.

“It’s a great measure to see how people are performing and how all their hard work is paying off. So we’re actually excited where people are at and for the rest of the season,” she said.

The top performance came from junior Katrina Rokosz who make significant personal records in both the javelin and shot.

“It was a pretty good day,” said Rokosz, who won the javelin by nearly 40 feet with a throw of 107.3 feet and finished first in the shot with a throw of 26 feet, 8  1/2 inches.

“I’ve been working a lot with javelin with a teammate and that has helped a lot because we trade tips which is great,” said Rokosz. In the shot, she’s got some sage advice from someone close to home.

“My dad use to throw the shot and his tips were great,” she said.

Rokosz was joined by Anoush Krafian and Julia Cella as duel winners on the day. Krafian – the best freshman high jumpers in the state and a national finalist – took home her speciality clearing 5 feet, 1 inch as well as coming in first in the long jump with a 16 foot, 10 inch effort.

On the track, sophomore Cella, coming off a second place in the 200 meter state Div. 2 outdoor championships last year, took the sprint double, winning the 100 meter in 12.8 seconds (with Krafian in second in 13.4) and the 200 in 26.9 seconds.

Other strong performances included a dominating run by Meggie MacAulay to win the 400 meters wire to wire in 1 minute, 3.9 seconds, Kayla Magno took the 400 meter hurdles in 1:09.7 and Rachel Berets finished top in the 100 meter hurdles in 16.9 seconds.

Freshmen Lead Belmont Softball to Home Opener Win Over Stoneham

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Photo: Belmont pitcher Christine MacLeod against Stoneham. 

Powered by the pitching and hitting from the team’s two freshmen, Belmont High School Softball cruised to a home opening win, defeating Stoneham High School, 13-1, in a shortened five-inning game on Monday, April 13. 

“This is a great group of girls who can pitch and play defense,” said Bob Magarian, the rookie head coach whose team record is above .500 at 2-1. 

“That’s from the old school, but you also need to score runs so you have to get the offense clicking which we did today,” he said.

Freshman starting pitcher Christine MacLeod threw her second consecutive one-run game – the first was an 18-1 beat down of hosts Watertown High School April 7 – giving up a pair of singles and two doubles while putting up five strikeouts. 

Up by a single run going into the bottom of the 4th, the Marauders scored seven times with two outs as junior third base Lia Muckjian and junior catcher and co-captain Meghan Ferraro stroking RBI  singles during the rally.

Belmont wrapped up the game in the fifth with 9th grade left fielder Kate Lester bombing a triple – one of two extra base hits for the Marauders – to score senior first base and co-captain Lauren Noonan with the first of five runs in the inning resulting in the game being called early due to the mercy rule. 

“I wasn’t really thinking. I just swung the bat and ran,” Lester said about her hit, which goes along with her double against Watertown.

“She got the big hit, hasn’t made any mistakes out in the field in three games and we like her a lot,” Magarian said of Lester.