Local Grads Make Impact in Spring Post-Seasons at College Level
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Pittsfield High graduate Mia Alfonso this spring helped lead the Westfield State softball team to a 39-3 record and a Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference Championship.
Westfield State went 1-2 in the Division III National Championship.
Alfonso, a senior, appeared in 39 games, batting .347 with seven home runs, 10 doubles and 36 runs batted in.
After the season, Alfonso was named to the National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-Region team.
Closer to home, the MCLA softball team went 20-20 and reached the MASCAC semi-finals, garnering the most wins for the program since 2013 and its first non-losing season since 2001.
Several Berkshire County high school alumnae contributed to all that success for the Trailblazers.
Nevaeh Lopez (Pittsfield) went .391 at the plate, which was second on the team and hit three homers with 29 RBIs. Amelia Leasure (Taconic) went .328 at the plate with 16 runs batted in. Paxton Ebling (PHS) hit .250 and played in all 40 games for MCLA. McCann Tech graduate Miranda Ranzoni played in 36 games in the outfield. Pittsfield High's Juliana Johansen went 2-2 in eight appearances as a pitcher, striking out 12 hitters and finishing her junior year with a 6.92 earned run average.
Avery Vale-Cruz (Wahconah) went 8-9 in the circle with a 4.17 earned run average and eight complete games this spring for the University of Rhode Island.
On the baseball diamond, Mount Greylock graduate Derek Paris was named the America East Baseball Scholar-Athlete of the Year after his senior season at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County. Paris played 50 games behind the plate, starting 48, and compiled a .324 batting average with two homers and 32 runs batted in. In the classroom, he earned a 3.748 GPA in computer science.
Staying in Division I, Jayder Raifstanger (Monment Mountain) and the St. John's University Red Storm went all the way to the NCAA Super Regionals last month before falling to the University of Alabama. Raifstanger had a team-best .325 batting average while starting all 62 games for St. John's. He hit three home runs and drove in 49 runs on his way to being named second team all-Northeast by the American Baseball Coaches Association as a junior.
Univeristy of Pennsylvania junior Nick Guachione (Taconic) hit .308 this spring for the Quakers, appearing in 19 games for Penn (20-22). He hit a home run and drove in six runs.
At Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute this spring, Pittsfield High grad Walker Abdallah batted .365 with an on-base percentage of .919 in 38 games (37 starts) for the Engineers, who went 24-16.
Jack Cangelosi (Mount Greylock) appeared in 13 games with one start this spring, striking out 10 in 13 and two-third innings for the Beacons (21-22).
Matt Lee (Taconic) had 10 starts on the mound and went 2-7 at Division II Franklin Pierce this spring. Drury's Jake Gladu appeared in nine games with three starts in his first season at Franklin Pierce, which finished the year with a record of 12-31.
Jacob Thompson (Mount Greylock) started two games behind the plate at the City College of New York, which posted an 18-20 record.
Chase Racine (PHS) was second in batting at Westfield State (16-26) this spring with an average of .312 to go with a home run and 33 RBIs. His teammate, Antonio Scalise (Taconic) played in 29 games for the Owls, collecting four doubles.
At Westfield State's MASCAC rival, Mass College of Liberal Arts, more than a half dozen locals played on a Trailblazer team that went 8-30 this spring.
Pittsfield High graduate Roshan Warriar was named to the D3baseball.com all-Region 2 third team after hitting a team-best .328 with 14 RBIs and 15 stolen bases. Warriar also made nine appearances on the mound, compiling a 3.72 earned run average.
Ben Jacob (PHS) went .267 at the plate with 11 runs batted in in 37 games for MCLA. Cam Zerbato (Pittsfield) had the team's lowest ERA (3.00) in four appearances on the mound. Cam Harrington (Pittsfield) was the workhorse of the MCLA pitching staff with 12 appearances and two wins (both team highs), and he finished the year with a 4.02 ERA; he struck out 55 and walked 29 in 53 and two-third innings. Chase Wendling (Taconic) was third on the team with 10 appearances. Collin Booth (McCann Tech) made nine appearances on the mound and went 1-2. Ben Cornish (Pittsfield) pitched in three games.
Noah Poirier (Wahconah) was named United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) All-North Region honorable mention after his sophomore season at St. Michael's College this spring. Poirier set a school record of 196 faceoff wins with a 62.4 percent success rate for the Knights (10-6). In an April game against Franklin Pierce, he went 21-for-21 on faceoffs, the best perfect performance by an NCAA Division II player in three years.
At Division I Siena, Caden Padelford (Wahconah) appeared in 10 games and collected three assists as a senior for the 12-5 Saints, who reached the championship game of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
In women's lacrosse, Hoosac Valley grad Ashlyn Lesure appeared in all 16 games and started 14 at the University of New England this spring, helping the Nor'Easters go 8-8. Lesure finished with two goals and an assist with 18 ground balls in her first year with UNE.
Ainsley Abel (Mount Greylock) had a big impact this spring for the Williams College women, scoring 15 goals and assisting on two more in a 12-8 campaign that ended in the fourth round of the NCAA Division III tournament.
Meanwhile, Sarah Polumbo and the Wesleyan Cardinals went all the way to the DIII National Title game, where they fell to NESCAC rival Middlebury. Polumbo, like Abel a member of Mount Greylock's Class of '23, had a goal and four assists for Wesleyan, which finished the year 19-4.
Another member of that graduating class at Mount Greylock was Christy Rech, who backstopped the Main Maritime women in 12 games this spring, compiling a save percentage of 40.7. Mass Maritime finished the year with a record of 1-12.
In track and field, Wahconah's Aryianna Garceau capped her stellar career by earning Academic All-America honors at UMass-Boston, where she compiled a 3.78 grade point average. She also was named the Little East Conference Athlete of the Year after setting a Division III record (13.48 seconds) in the 100-meter hurdles and won a fourth straight national title at the NCAA Championships in May.
While Garceau's historic career is wrapping up, Chase Hoey (Mount Greylock) is just getting started at Middlebury College, where she placed second in the high jump and sixth in the long jump at the Middlebury Outdoor Meet in mid April.
Mount Greylock alum Gavin Hetherington returned to Williamstown with the Middlebury Panthers in May and posted an 18th-place finish in the discus at the Farley Inter Regional Extravaganza meet. Hetherington was ninth in the Division III New England Championship and 13th at the NESCAC Championships for the Panthers.
His Middlebury teammate and fellow former Mountie, Noah Klompus, was 15th in the pole vault at the New England Small College Athletic Confernce Championship, clearing 13 feet, 7.25 inches.
At Vassar College, Mount Greylock graduate Rafael Mellow-Bartels posted a personal-best time of 4 minutes, 10.30 seconds in the 1500 meters at the Liberty League Championships as a first-year competitor for the Brewers.
Peyton Shippee (Wahconah) finished second in the javelin with a throw of 199 feet, 7 inches competing for Kent State at the Jesse Owens Classic at Ohio State in May.
If you know a local student-athlete who should be included in a future edition of College Collage, email sports@iberkshires.com.
