LISBON — The Lisbon High School softball team waited a long time to get its first game in. For Greyhounds junior Giana Russo, finally playing a varsity sport again was special and worth the wait.
Lisbon jumped on Mountain Valley for 12 first-inning runs, started by a Russo RBI single, and the Greyhounds added five more runs in the fourth for a 17-2 Mountain Valley Conference mercy-rule win.
Russo missed her high school basketball season while recuperating from a knee injury sustained late in the fall soccer campaign. Against the Falcons on Monday, she manned her usual softball position, catcher, for three innings before switching to second base for two frames.
“To finally be out there and be able to catch, which I love, was special,” said Russo, who was 1-for-2 at the plate with two walks and three runs scored. She also threw out a base runner that strayed a bit too far off first base. “Missing basketball was awful. It was great to be out here and to get off to a great start in the first inning. Win or lose I would have been happy to be out here supporting my team.”
“I think she did phenomenal and is just an all-around great athlete,” Lisbon coach Terri Tlumac said of Russo. “We are lucky as a team, as a school, to have her playing for us. She is a great representation of Lisbon. She was more excited than anyone to get cleared by the doctor to play.”
After the Falcons grabbed a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on an RBI single by Saydie Garbarini, Lisbon went to work in its first swings of the year. In all, 15 Greyhounds stepped to the plate as the hosts tallied 12 runs.
Russo drove in her team’s first run with a single to right field. Kiley Merritt singled to drive in a run later in the frame and capped the uprising with a bases-clearing three-run triple for a 12-1 Lisbon lead.
“It couldn’t have been any better of a start, finally getting outside and playing on our field, it was just a good start where everyone was hitting the ball and making plays,” Tlumac said, who discussed her team’s long preparations during the preseason. “I had to keep them entertained because I didn’t want them to lose the momentum of playing softball after some good preseason games. We played in the (Topsham) Dome, and then it was three weeks of nothing. We kept it light and exciting.”
Three first-inning errors cost Mountain Valley (0-2), which has faced its own trials of trying to get outside for both practices and games.
“We had a lot of errors in the first inning, but we are trying to rebuild our pitching from last year. We are working on it. They have a good attitude, so that is good,” said Mountain Valley coach Lisa Russell. “We have been in the gym all season. We had one day out on the middle school field. Our field flooded again this weekend, so we haven’t been on our own field. They won’t be able to make those plays, field those balls, until we get out here and play more.”
Falcons starting pitcher Karizma Chickering battled back after the rough opening frame, keeping Lisbon off the scoreboard in the second and third frames.
Mountain Valley scored its second run in the second inning when Gracie Farnum scampered home on a Chickering ground ball.
But Lisbon put the game away in the fourth, adding five more runs. The Greyhounds took advantage of five walks, with Merritt completing her six-RBI opener with a two-run single off of Mountain Valley reliever Courtney Carrier.
Merritt was 3-for-4, while Sarah Haggerty was 2-for-2 with a double, two RBIs and two runs scored. Carly Drischer and Mallory Fairbanks also had a hit for the Greyhounds, with Fairbanks earning the mound win with three solid innings on four hits, four strikeouts, two walks and two hit batters. Erica Hill tossed the final two frames (one strikeout).
Lisbon returns to action on Wednesday at Oak Hill, while Mountain Valley heads to Winthrop on Tuesday.
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