Risica help lifts Big Red in chasing the Crimson
Her numbers at the plate did not quite match her breakout freshman season, but Meg Risica of Franklin still played an integral role for the Cornell University women's softball team this spring, supplying solid defense, fleet feet on the base paths, and a consistent bat.
The sophomore started 42 games, primarily in left field. Hitting seventh or eighth in the order, she batted .263 with four home runs and 23 RBIs.
The Big Red finished 35-14 overall, but 13-7 in the Ivy League race, one game behind North division champion Harvard (31-13, 14-6).
"Although she struggled at the plate at times during the year, she is a tireless worker always seeking to improve," said Cornell coach Dick Blood . "She maintains a superior work ethic." As a freshman, Risica led the Big Red with eight home runs and 30 RBIs while hitting .293.
Her work on defense did not go unnoticed.
"Meg is a solid defender with good range and an excellent throwing arm," said Blood. "Her mechanics are super. Defensively, she is vastly improved over a year ago."
Blood said Risica's grand slam in a 13-3 win against Yale in late March "really got us going in the Ivy chase."
At Franklin High, Risica was a four-year starter for coach Lori Salvia at third base, part of two Hockomock League championship teams, team MVP as a senior and a Globe All-Scholastic.
As for the rival Harvard Crimson, another local standout, Newton North High grad Sarah Shaughnessy, has carved out a role as the team's top pinch hitter. The senior reserve catcher (daughter of Globe sports columnist Dan Shaughnessy) has appeared in 27 games for Harvard, hitting .263 while also contributing as a pinch runner.
"She is a go-to pinch hitter for us, battling for an at-bat," said Harvard coach Jenny Allard . "She goes in in tough pressure situations. She has really come on with her hitting this year." Allard also lauded Shaughnessy's work as a bullpen catcher.
Harvard captured its fourth Ivy League crown with a two-game sweep of South champion Penn, clinching a berth in the NCAA Division 1 tournament. The Crimson players will learn the identity of their first-round foe this afternoon, when the tournament pairings are released.
Learning from its losses,
Framingham State takes title
The Framingham State College women's softball team still had last spring's stinging defeat in the conference tournament in mind last weekend, when the players renewed their quest for the program's first conference title and an NCAA Division 3 playoff berth.
And their campaign hit a bump right away, with the team losing its first game against Bridgewater State, by a 7-1 score, in the Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference championships.
But that's when things changed, as the Rams rode a two-hit shutout by senior pitcher DeAnna Curtis to a 1-0 win over the Bears in Game 2, clinching the title in the double-elimination tournament.
"Losing last year helped us," said Framingham State's coach, Rich Paulhus , recalling how his team had a 3-1 lead with two outs in the fifth inning of Game 1 a year ago but let victory slip from its grasp. "This year, we regrouped and just refused to lose."
Curtis was dominant in the tournament, compiling a 3-0 record with a .84 earned-run average, and fanning 17 batters in 25 innings.
Framingham State scored the clinching game's lone run on a sacrifice fly in the first inning.
"The defense was awesome. DeAnna mixed up her pitches, and we held on," said Paulhus, in his fifth year at the team's helm.
Bridgewater threatened in the seventh inning, putting runners on second and third with one out, but Curtis came back to record a strikeout and then induced a grounder to shortstop Christina Sullivan for the game's final out.
Framingham State then turned its attention to playing Rhode Island College, ranked No. 1 in New England Division 3, in the first round of the NCAA tourney on Thursday.
No matter the outcome, this has been a memorable spring, Paulhus said.
"If you play for Framingham State, you really love softball," said Paulhus. "It's really a tight group -- we're really a team. They put all the other stuff aside and go out and play softball."
The unquestioned leader is Sullivan, who owns all of the program's hitting records and has not missed a game in four years.
Thanks to sterling work in goal by '05 Framingham High grad Jamie Dannenburg , the College of Wooster women's lacrosse team (12-4) captured the North Coast Athletic Conference title last Saturday with a 13-10 comeback win over host Ohio Wesleyan. A sophomore, Dannenburg made 11 saves in the final as the Fighting Scots secured a berth in the NCAA Division 3 tourney, and was named to the conference all-tournament team . . .
In Bentley's run to the program's first Northeast-10 lacrosse championship game appearance since 2000, senior Kellyn Riccitelli became the Falcons' all-time leading scorer with 217 points (144 goals, 73 assists), and sophomore Alyssa Ritchie set Bentley's single-season scoring mark (92 points, including a school-record 47 assists). However, host Stonehill won the NE-10 title, 9-7 . . .
On the baseball diamond, Bentley senior center fielder Bob Savoy collected Northeast-10 Player of the Week honors last week by hitting a cool .500 (11-for-22) over a six-game stretch, including a triple and a homer. He also tracked down 19 balls without an error. In 16 games after April 21, he hit a sizzling .404 . . .
Bentley junior Samantha Robbins of Franklin finished second behind teammate Barbara Powell in the 1,500 meters at last week's NE-10 Track & Field Championships with a time of 4:49.72.
There's certainly no shortage of aces on area softball diamonds.
Ashland High sophomore Nicole D'Argento and senior Brittany O'Neill , Bellingham freshman C.C. Robinson , Hudson junior Kaitlin Andrews , King Philip Regional junior Jen Jones , Lincoln-Sudbury Regional sophomore Anna Balser , Marian High sophomore Keriann Kirby , Milford freshman Amanda Smith, Nashoba Regional senior Courteney Collier , Newton North freshman Rae Copan, and Shrewsbury High senior Amanda Aditays are turning in superb performances and keeping their squads near or atop the standings.
Lou Tredeau , coach at Framingham's Marian High, said it's tough to compete without a pitcher able "to keep the other team in check." His Mustangs were 12-0 at midweek, thanks to the work of Kirby (11-0, .77 earned-run average).
Shrewsbury coach Phil Chevalier recalls his first season at the helm, six years ago. The previous spring's star pitcher, Aditays's older sister, Jessica, had departed for the University of Maryland, he said. "They were a 12-win team with her on the mound. We went 0-20 the next season."
Wellesley High grad Kim Miller will replace Ken Morin as the varsity girls' soccer coach at Algonquin Regional in the fall. She assisted Morin last season in the Tomahawks' run to the Division 1 state semifinals. After playing collegiate soccer at Mount Holyoke and Bowdoin, Miller started her coaching career at Concord Academy before moving to Tahanto Regional in Sturbridge. She was the women's coach at Worcester State for five seasons, earning coach of the year honors in 1998. Morin recently accepted the position as varsity boys' soccer coach at Grafton High. Athletic director Fran Whitten is interviewing candidates for the open varsity boys' hockey position.
Boylston resident Frank Vana Jr., a Sudbury native and Marian High grad, and links partner Brendan Hester placed second in the Massachusetts Golf Association's first tournament of the season, the State Four-Ball, held at Shaker Hills Golf Club and Mount Pleasant Country Club. The duo finished four strokes off the pace.
Craig Larson can be reached at 508-820-4234 or clarson@ globe.com. 