Mounties Win as Jaros Joins 100-Hit Club

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- Mount Greylock's Kaleigh Jaros started her day with 98 career hits, and she got a clean single to left in her first at-bat against Drury.

 

Then she hit a little bump on the road to history -- two of them in fact, going 0-for-2 in her next two plate appearances.

 

But in the bottom of the fifth, Jaros stroked a single to left to reach the milestone ... and help the Mounties get their second win of the season, a 17-5 victory ended by Kimora Melanson's second home run of the afternoon.

 

Afterward, Jaros said she was feeling a little bit of pressure in front of the home crowd going into the game.

 

"Definitely not from my team, because everyone is very supportive," Jaros said. "I think from just me, I had a lot of anxiety. And I was hoping I would get it, but ... yeah."

 

Mount Greylock coach Mark Pierson said that Jaros is an easy player for her teammates to rally around.

 

"She's such a great kid," Pierson said. "Everybody loves her.

 

"And she was good when she got here, but she's worked really hard in the fall and the winter. You know, four or five nights a week just pitching and hitting. And it shows. She's successful in what she's doing."

 

Jaros earned the complete-game win in the circle on Thursday, striking out three and stranding runners in every inning.

 

At the plate, she was part of a 13-hit Mount Greylock attack that featured Melanson's two round-trippers and a triple and two doubles from Audrianna Pelkey.

 

The game started with Jaros hanging a zero on the scoreboard. She got the first two Drury hitters on swinging strikes and, after giving up a walk, she got a slick play from Kyleigh Cooper at third; Cooper went down to her knees to feel a shot down the line and threw across the diamond to get the third out.

 

That brought Mount Greylock's offense to the plate. The first three batters reached for Pelkey, who ripped a two-run double. Three batters later, Melanson delivered the first home run of her varsity career -- and her first of the game.

 

"It was almost foul," she said of the shot down the third-base line. "It was an amazing feeling, my first home run ever."

 

Drury got three runs back in the second, taking advantage of a couple of walks, a Marie Fachini RBI single and a successful delayed double steal by Emily Lyons at first and Norah Wood at third.

 

The Mounties got those three runs back and more, taking a 10-3 lead into the fifth.

 

Drury's Wood lifted a sacrifice fly to left, and Lyons drove in a run with a single to get their team back within five.

 

But Mount Greylock exploded for seven runs in the bottom of the frame to end the game.

 

Bridget Holland and Cooper worked back-to-back one-out walks to start the rally.

 

Then Mount Greylock got back-to-back singles from Evy Clairmont and Jaros -- the latter touching off a brief on-field celebration of her milestone.

 

Pelkey's third extra-base hit of the game made it 14-5, and Bayleigh Tatro's RBI single made it a 10-run cushion.

 

Two batters later, Melanson crushed the ball over the left-field fence to make it 17-5 and end the game.

 

Despite its 2-7 record this spring, Mount Greylock continues to put up numbers offensively, raising its average to just fewer than seven runs per game.

 

"We spend a lot of time [on hitting]," Pierson said. "Sometimes, I think we're a little too aggressive and we need to take a few more [pitches]. But today it worked out pretty good. We took some pitches, but we were also aggressive when we needed to be. So that was good."

 

Mount Greylock goes to Monument Mountain on Friday.

 

Drury (3-10) hosts Lee on Saturday.