BHS Tennis, Softball Teams Advance to Elite Eight

Two of Bedford High School’s sports teams are on their way to their respective “elite eights” after definitive victories in the second round of the MIAA state tournament on Tuesday afternoon.

The second-seeded boys’ tennis team blanked North Reading, 5-0, at the Wedgewood Club. The Bucs will next entertain a familiar tournament opponent – Dover-Sherborn. The day, time, and venue will be announced on Wednesday.

Winning for the Bucs were singles players Dillon Denny-Brown, Jeremy Gu, and Rylan Nichols. The doubles pairs of  Logan Cox and Spencer Goss as well as Charles Demeo and Leonardo Natalizio also won.

Meanwhile, the softball team knows where it’s going after blanking Plymouth South, 6-0. Bedford travels to the second-ranked team in Division 2 – Tewksbury Memorial – for a showdown at 6 p.m. on Saturday at Hazel Field.

There were a lot of contributors to Tuesday’s second-round win, but none more impressive than junior Alyx Rossi. She threw a one-hit shutout at the 16-4 Panthers, striking out 17. Rossi faced the fourth, fifth and sixth hitters nine times and recorded nine strikeouts. There were only two balls hit to the outfield the entire game by the Panthers.

Oh, and she had a pretty good day at the plate with two singles, a double, an RBI and an intentional walk.

Bedford scored what proved to be the winning run in the second inning. Mia Vitti was grazed by a pitch with one out and went to second on a passed ball. With two out, Ani Eskandarian grounded to second. The Plymouth South fielder bobbled the ball and it rolled behind her. That’s all Vitti needed to race home.

Bedford made it 2-0 in the next inning when Katie Patterson (two hits in the game) scored from second on Alice Cooprider’s line-drive single to right.

The Bucs put this one away with three runs in the fifth. Annie Rossi drove a ball to left that the outfielder misplayed into a triple. Adi Poulter then dropped a squeeze bunt towards first, and the fielder threw wildly trying to cut off the run at the plate.

Later in the inning, with the bases loaded and two outs, Vitti hit a grounder near the second-base bag. Patterson, running from first, arrived about the same time as the ball, and while the defense was trying to find it, two more runs scored.

The Bucs had nine hits and have now won their first two tournament games by a combined score of 19-0.