Sports

Tigers finding their footing

By Kameron Towle
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NEWPORT – After starting out the season 0-2, the Newport Tigers’ softball team has seemed to find their footing in 2019, with back-to-back wins against solid programs to reach .500.

The Tigers beat Sunapee, 10-9 on Monday evening, and then beat Conant 13-0 on Tuesday.

“The first two games I was trying to move people around and see who could fit where,” said Newport head coach Sam McNeel. “Doing all of our work in the gym before the season… it was hard to know the best positions for everyone.”

This year’s Tigers have a different look than last year’s team that had a perfect 16-0 regular season. They’ve lost a couple starters to graduation, they lost Alyssa Burr to a knee injury, and a couple more left the team for various reasons.

“It’s a very young group,” said coach McNeel. “We have one junior, two seniors, and everyone else is an underclassmen.”

But, the Tigers are starting to settle in and get used to their new-look squad.

After committing more than a handful of errors in each of the first two games, McNeel shuffled his defense around, and it seemed to pay off, with Newport committing 0 errors on Tuesday evening.

Along with the improved defense, the Tigers’ bats have come alive in the past two games, even with the task of going against Sunapee hurler Ellie Frederick.

“I think that helped us out… that we were able to hit Ellie on Monday,” said McNeel. “She’s a really good pitcher.”

Newport carried that momentum into the start of Tuesday’s game with Conant where they jumped out to a 10-0 lead after just two innings. They had 8 hits for 13 runs in just 4 innings of offense.

Tiger freshman Alicia Urista was 3-for-3 on Tuesday with 2 singles, a triple, and 3 RBIs, junior Lacey McNeel was 2-for-2 with a single, a triple and 2 RBIs, and sophomore Jenna Maheu was 1-for-3 with 3 RBIs. Erin Seagrove and Anna June also added hits.

On the mound, Lacey McNeel put together her best performance of the season so far, pitching all five innings, striking out 7 while walking 1 and allowing no runs to cross the plate.

The Tigers (2-2) will look to stay hot, as they will face Conant again today, this time on the road.

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