Asked for the biggest weakness he's seen from his team, Londonderry softball coach Wayne MacDougall had to think for a second before arriving at an answer.
"We need to work on our outfield a little bit," he said.
He didn't mean offensive production from the outfield, though. That's been fine. He means outfield defense. Outfield. Defense. That's his team's biggest flaw.
"I suppose that's a good thing, isn't it?" he said with a laugh. "That's a very rare thing to even think about, working on your outfield. Usually you have to work on your infield, or your pitching and catching or whatever. I guess that is a bit of a luxury."
The Lancers have been so good, in fact, that they're allowing an average of 1.8 runs a game, and scoring almost 6.5. That's why they're off to a 10-1 start and sit atop the Class L standings, tied with Timberlane.
Pitching is probably the least of the team's problems. The tandem of Brooke Beaudet and Andrea Ouellette have been assaulting Class L hitters since the season began. Beaudet, a senior flame thrower, is 5-1 in 43 innings pitched. Her strikeout-to-walk ratio is a gaudy 78:8, and her ERA is a team-average 0.97. Team-average. Ouellette, the team's other pitcher, has the same ERA, of course. She's 5-0 with 26 punch-outs and five walks in 31 innings.
"It's really a luxury to say the least," MacDougall said. "The only other team that's ever been able to do that (have two lights-out starters) consistently is Salem. They've always had a few pitchers at any given time. The last couple years, they've been really really good."
But not even mighty Salem was a match for Ouellette and Beaudet earlier this year. Ouellette threw 51/3 of four-hit, two-run ball before Beaudet came in and picked up the save with three K's in the final 12/3. Londonderry cruised to a 4-2 win.
The confidence that win — the first against Salem in something like 13 years — built is immeasurable.
"I think that helps the mentality of the kids for sure," MacDougall said. "Salem's a little nicked up. Their catcher was hurt, and so is their No. 1 pitcher, so I guarantee that come May they'll be better. I think it's a psychological thing, though. You don't want to go in there still thinking or wondering (if you can beat them). That doesn't mean anything, and they could still beat us, but at least in the back of our minds, that won't be the reason."
But it hasn't been pitching alone that's won ballgames for Londonderry. The Lancers had four players hitting over .400 headed into Monday's clash with cellar-dwelling Trinity. Shortstop Molly Rooney, an All-Class L player last year, leads the team with a .469/.500/.605 batting line (average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage). But, warns MacDougall, she's slipped a bit in the past three games.
"She was batting .700," he said.
Beaudet, meanwhile, is hitting .451/.553/1.000. That slugging percentage is maybe the most impressive thing about this team. She has five homers and a triple — "I held her at third; I probably could have sent her," MacDougall said with a chuckle — and has 21 RBI. She had 23 all of last season, though that's as much a product of Londonderry's offense as anything else.
Ouellette (.424) and Emily Kratenberg (.438) are also above .400. Cristina Bailey, who got off to an uncharacteristically slow start, has heated up of late, bumping her average to .320. MacDougall thinks Bailey, too, could hit .400 before the season ends. The team as a whole is batting .310.
"That's never happened before," MacDougall said. "In recent history, we've always had a problem scoring runs. Finally, this year, that hasn't been the problem. We did beat Spalding 1-0, and at Alvirne they had us 1-0 until we scored six runs in the sixth inning. But most of the time, we're scoring early. Like against Salem, we got three in the first inning and that's really different."
There is, of course, the issue of the one blemish. That was a 3-1 loss to Timberlane on April 14, though that was because of Londonderry's failure to capitalize on its chances rather than Timberlane's dominance. The Lancers, after all, stranded four runners in scoring position in the first three innings, and had another thrown out trying to steal third.
"We made a couple mistakes," MacDougall said. "Usually we score in the first inning and we had the bases loaded in the first inning that game and didn't take advantage of that. We had other runners on, too, and we didn't get them across later in the game."
But that's behind them. Since then, Londonderry is undefeated, and 6-0 against teams above .500. Timberlane's loss came 2-1 to Nashua South (5-5), which Londonderry proceeded to beat 4-1.
All this has Londonderry thinking big, like the team's second straight trip to the Class L final and third in school history. So far, it doesn't seem like there's much that could slow down this Lancer juggernaut.
"For pitchers to be not only pitching well but hitting that well? That's going to win you a few games," MacDougall said. "As long as you score a couple runs, you're going to have a good shot every time you go out there. We really are good. It's not magic here. These kids are good."
