North Adams softball surges to 9-3, tops conference with balanced attack

North Adams is not just piling up wins, it is staking an early claim to the Southern Hills Athletic Conference race. The Lady Devils moved to 9-3 overall and 3-0 in league play by sweeping through another productive week, and they did it with enough balance to suggest this start is more than a hot streak.

Through 12 games, North Adams had outscored opponents 79-29, a margin that reflects how well the Lady Devils have handled both tight games and blowouts. Freshman Chloe Armstrong has been the centerpiece at the plate, hitting .500 with 20 hits in 40 at-bats, 13 runs batted in, eight extra-base hits and three home runs. But she has not carried the lineup alone. Paige Evans hit .302, Carlee Garrison .349, Lilly Parker .345 and Riley Woods .351, giving coach Paula Armstrong multiple bats that have forced opposing pitchers to pick their battles.

The pitching has matched the offense. Garrison and freshman Marnie Tolle combined for 87 strikeouts in 76 innings and carried a 0.91 earned-run average, which has helped North Adams control games whether the score stayed close or turned into a run-rule. That showed in a 7-3 win over Portsmouth Clay, when Chloe Armstrong homered in the first inning and drove in five runs to set the tone early. It also showed in a 16-2 run-rule win over Ripley on April 7, when the Lady Devils scored in every one of their at-bats and took advantage of sloppy defense to build a quick cushion.

The week had already been built on momentum from a 4-1 win over Whiteoak in the first conference game, when Tolle threw a seven-inning complete game, allowed one hit and struck out 12 to improve to 3-1 with a 0.27 ERA. North Adams had opened the season March 21 and was 6-3 through nine games by April 3, so the surge into a 3-0 SHAC start came on top of an already fast climb. A 3-1 win over Lynchburg-Clay on April 9 kept the conference run moving, and the Lady Devils had still more proof that the ceiling is higher than a strong week. Last year, North Adams won its first tournament game in school softball history, beating Nelsonville-York 15-4 in sectional play, and this spring’s surge has carried that breakthrough into conference contention.