VOORHEESVILLE — Voorheesville softball coach Matt Fiato didn’t want to call Tuesday’s win over Holy Names an upset, but it was definitely the biggest win of the year for the Blackbirds this season.

The 7-2 win over the 9-3 Holy Names squad improved Voorheesville’s record to .500 — 6-6 in the Colonial Council, 7-7 overall — and will bode well for the team’s confidence in the final stretch of the season.
"We are .500 right now," Fiato said. "We want to get into the sectionals. Obviously, our goal is to be better than .500. But we want to get in and win a game or two in the Class B tournament and go from there."

Impressive hitting

It was an impressive hitting performance for the Lady Blackbirds as they banged out eight hits and put runners on in almost every inning of the contest.

After a scoreless first inning, Holy Names scored in the top half of the second inning and held a 1-0 lead.

Voorheesville answered with three runs in the bottom half of the inning to take a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.

Jenna Massaroni led off the inning and ripped a triple down the left field line. She scored on a single by Jillian Blair to even the score.

Rebekah Coons singled and Blair beat a throw to third base. Coons advanced to second on the throw.

Kelsey DeZalia walked to load the bases and the next Voorheesville hitter, Brittany Holcomb, hit a ball to the second baseman who tagged out DeZalia, but Blair scored to give the Blackbirds a 2-1 lead.

Jackie Moreau singled to drive in Coons for the third run of the inning.

Voorheesville added a run in the third inning as Massaroni scored after leading off the inning with a single. Massaroni scored on an RBI double by DeZalia.

The Blackbirds scored three times in the fourth frame to take a 7-1 lead.

Moreau led off the inning with a walk and scored on a fielder’s choice. Alissa Hatch hit a two-out single later in the stanza and Massaroni drew a walk to load the bases. Blair kept the bases loaded with a fielder’s choice that forced out Brittany Creed at the plate.

Coons drove in Hatch and DeZalia with a single to round out the scoring.

Holy Names scored a run in the seventh but couldn’t get anything else as the Blackbirds played solid defense behind pitcher Sarah LaFave.

LaFave had a strong game, giving up just the two runs and giving up four hits. She struck out 10 hitters and had just five walks.

"Team win"
"They are a very good team in our league," Fiato said of Holy Names. "They are second, but this might drop them to third. We hit some tough balls at them in the field. We were swinging the bats well today. We adjusted to their starting pitcher and got comfortable at the plate."

The Blackbirds played a solid all-around game.
"It definitely is a team win," Fiato said. "I try to get everybody in. We have girls that can play two or three positions. We like to juggle the line-up and get everyone a chance to play."

The Voorheesville players have been swinging the bats well in the past couple of weeks, Fiato said. The Blackbirds struggled at the plate earlier in the season.
"We have raised the team average about 80 points in the last week," Fiato said. "We have had 15 or 16 hits since we played Schalmont [last Tuesday]. We were hitting .280 after yesterday."

Voorheesville has won four of its last six games. The losses have come against Mechanicville, the top team in the Colonial Council, on Friday and Cohoes last Wednesday.
"Mechanicville was a tough loss," Fiato said. "We had a late rally going, but they’re a good team. Cohoes we lost to 5-2. It was a game we let slip away."

Voorheesville will have four more league games this season. It also has three non-league games scheduled after next Tuesday.

Due to cancellations from earlier in the season, the Blackbirds played Holy Names again on Wednesday. After that game, the Birds play at Watervliet Thursday, at Cobleskill on Friday, and close out the league season at Lansingburgh on Monday.

Though the Blackbirds just have to win two of those games to qualify for sectionals, Fiato wants his team to strive for more than that.
"We want to win outright," the coach said. "We want to be hot going into sectionals. We got some non-league games against Class AA schools, Guilderland, Bethlehem, and Albany. We want to be playing our best at the right time of the season."