Westfield State looking strong in spring sports
March 6, 2009
By Mike Bogen, Springfield Republican
The votes are in, and this spring most of them are going to Westfield State College.
The Owls have been the darlings of opposing coaches who each season vote in the Massachusetts State Athletic Conference preseason polls, with the prognosticators choosing Westfield's baseball team and both its men's and women's track and field teams to finish first in their conferences.
The softball team was picked to be runnerup to Bridgewater State by a narrow 60-55 margin, while the women's lacrosse team was the least favored, going into the season ranked fourth in the eight-team New England Women's Lacrosse Alliance Poll.
As usual, the rosters of the Westfield teams are dotted with athletes from the Pioneer Valley.
The baseball team has only two - Monson's Adam Franke, a senior who started 11 games and hit .273 last year, and infielder Ben Campbell of Easthampton.
The Owls softball team, on the other hand, is loaded with local talent, starting with Athol native Alicia Gardner. The sophomore shortstop, who pitched Athol to a Division II Western Massachusetts championship a few years ago, hit .386 last year, with a team-best slugging percentage of .578.
Senior Katie Gorman of Agawam hit .351 and slugged .505 last year, while West Side's Gia Calabrese started at catcher and Sunderland's Danielle Lutenegger started in left field about two-thirds of the time.
The Owls, 23-13 and 10-4 in the conference last year, will get a boost from two freshman standouts, Amherst's Alex Thompson, an outstanding defensive catcher, and All-Scholastic choice Ashtyn Welcome, who was 17-3 with a 1.09 ERA and 191 strikeouts in 140 innings for Pioneer Valley Regional as a senior last year.
Agawam's Rachel Dionne leads a contingent of five Pioneer Valley lacrosse players that includes Kaitlin Welsh, Kaleigh Toole and Katy Burns of Wilbraham; Jess Bruso and Kasey Rogers of West Springfield, and Rachel Comee of Southwick.
Dionne was an All-NEWLA first team selection as a freshman last season.