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PLAINVILLE, Mass. -- If April 24 was a day of infamy for King Philip softball, May 15 was a day of opportunity, encircled on the calendar by a bright red marker.

No. 2 KP’s date with redemption arrived much the way its team members envisioned. A three-hit shutout by ace Meghan Rico and a two-run home run by battery mate Olivia Godin paced the Warriors to a 3-0 win, splitting the season series with No. 7 Coyle-Cassidy.

“They’ve been chomping at the bit,” KP head coach Jim Leonard said. “We’ve had this date circled for a while now.”

KP (13-2) fell to C-C (11-3) in the teams’ previous meeting in Taunton, with Coyle making a late comeback. Since that date, KP embarked on a scorched earth campaign, with a streak of 67 scoreless innings tossed between pitchers Rico and Meg Carnase.

The new found attitude was on display Tuesday. Even as C-C eyed a comeback in the sixth inning, loading the bases, there was something different this time around.

“I was over the plate a little too much,” Rico said of her last outing against Coyle. “This time, I felt my pitches were breaking.”

Rico quelled C-C’s one-out riot in the sixth with a pair of strikeouts, painting the outside corner, both swinging.

She received all the offense she’d require in the fourth when Godin went opposite field for a two-run home run over the right-center field fence.

KP added an insurance run in the sixth with a sacrifice fly from Cayleigh McCarthy, scoring Carnase (2-for-3, double, two runs scored).

“I feel like we’ve been on top of our game since the Frankin game, and there’s no going back,” Rico said. “We’re ready to go for the rest of the games, we’re ready for the tournament.”

CONTRIBUTIONS THROUGHOUT
It might not have shown up on the scoreboard, but KP’s lower third of the lineup showed why the Warriors possess one of the state’s top lineups.

KP’s No. 7 through No. 9 hitters were a combined 5-for-7, between Annie Shiebler, Shannon Jones, Amy Nolan and pinch hitter Alyssa Siegmann.

The bottom of the order was responsible for a pair of bases-loaded threats in the third and fifth, however C-C starter Kelsey Boarman was able to wiggle out of both situations with double plays.

TAUNTON, Mass. –- Coyle-Cassidy softball’s hacks in the box against King Philip ace Meghan Rico on Tuesday were at first feeble.

The second time through the order, C-C showed promise. Third time? A little bit better. Fourth time? A little closer still.

The fifth time around, the Warriors wouldn’t need another go-round. That’s when the vaunted C-C offense ended the game in a 3-2 walk-off, extra-innings win.

It all started up top as C-C leadoff hitter Patty Borges reached in each of her five plate appearances, scoring each of the Warriors’ three runs. Meanwhile, cleanup hitter Julie Leclair provided the fireworks, driving in the game-tying run in the seventh and the game-winner in the ninth.

“All three parts of our game – our hitting, our pitching and our defense – came together well,” C-C head coach Russell Hunt said.

KP (5-2) looked poised to run away with it early, scoring runs in both the first and second, thanks to lead-off doubles. Rico started the game with a two-bagger on the first pitch of the game, before scoring on Meg Carnase’s double. In the second, Anna O’Neill doubled to the left-center field fence and scored on an Amy Nolan single.

Rico breezed through 4 2/3 innings without allowing a hit, but that’s when C-C began to catch on.

Borges’ two-out single in the fifth was the first indication of trouble. Genna Whalen promptly plated Borges with a double to right. Borges, a Stony Brook signee, led off the seventh by drawing a walk. After a sacrifice bunt from Whalen, Leclair stepped to the plate.

“The strikeouts [earlier in the game], I didn’t let them bother me," Leclair said. “Everybody had to do their part, so that’s why I just went up there, made contact and hit it.”

Leclair rapped Rico’s 0-2 offering into the outfield, scoring Borges with the tying run.

C-C (7-1) nearly pulled out the victory in the seventh on Katherine Clark’s suicide squeeze bunt. KP first baseman Cayleigh McCarthy caught Tricia Quinn sliding into home, with catcher Olivia Godin blocking the plate, for the second out of the inning.

Both teams were retired in order in the eighth before C-C ended it.

Borges scored her third run of the game after drawing another lead-off walk in the ninth.

And, once again, Leclair delivered.

“You can’t give those kinds of ball teams those kinds of opportunities,” said KP head coach Jim Leonard, whose team committed an uncharacteristic three errors in the field. “I’m not sure if because the layoff because of the rain we weren’t that sharp, but like I said, against good teams, you have to score your runs and then stay tight defensively.”

WALL TO THE LEFT
For all that Borges and Leclair produced with their bat on Tuesday, C-C’s key to victory was undoubtedly its defense.

The Warriors have perhaps the strongest left side of the infield in the state, and Borges had perhaps the game of her career, with 12 assists in the field.

“I think we’re a phenomenal all-around team when we put our minds to it,” Borges said of C-C’s commitment to fielding.

She added, “We work at everything equally as much.”

More than that, the Warriors’ infield was superb on a whole. Quinn made an array of picks and stretches on the first base bag. Second baseman Brittany Perdiago turned in the play of the game in the sixth with a back-handed snare of grounder with a dive and then beat Carnase to the bag with a throw from her knees.

With a strong unit behind her, C-C starter Kelsey Boarman became stronger as the game wore on, retiring nine straight to finish the complete-game win.

NORTH ATTLEBOROUGH, Mass. – Consider it a declaration that the Hockomock League still runs through King Philip.

In the course of the last week, upstart North Attleborough softball knocked off rival Mansfield, before the Hornets then went on to scare the living daylights out of King Philip on their own diamond.

So were the Warriors ripe for an upset? Hardly.

No. 1King Philip’s resounding 9-1 victory over No. 12 North on Thursday was a return to the status quo.

“I think we’re finally feeling more comfortable at the plate, we’re having more quality at-bats,” Warriors head coach Jim Leonard said. “We were aggressive against a good pitcher [North’s Megan Colleran] and we put the ball in play. We’re starting to find our stride offensively.”

KP’s 11-hit barrage was balanced and saw five players drive in runs, including Meg Carnase, Tori Constantin and Renee Poirier who each had two RBI.

North (3-1) took their cuts against Warriors ace Meghan Rico and came away with seven hits. However, the Red Rocketeers left 10 runners stranded and had bases loaded situations in both the fifth and seventh, but were unable to score.

Kim Hallahan knocked in the Red Rocketeers’ lone run in the sixth with an RBI double.

VERSATILITY AND DEPTH SHOWCASED
The Warriors lost one of their top players for the afternoon and perhaps much longer on a pivotal play in the home half of the second.

KP shortstop Alyssa Siegmann charged a smash hit off the bat of North left fielder Erin Melaney. While making a stab at the ground, Siegmann collided with North’s runner, who was breaking for third. The potential base hit was wiped out by the umpire’s call of interference and Siegmann was shaken up (with what Leonard fears is a separated shoulder), not to mention it ended North's rally with the third out.

The Warriors could rest easy knowing that second baseman Tori Constantin could move over to short while Leonard inserted sophomore Rory Baraiolo at second.

Not only did Baraiolo provide some sharp leather work in the field, she also knocked in a run during the Warriors’ two-run fifth.

“It was great that we had two [first-year players] step in and contribute,” Leonard said. “[Baraiolo] had an RBI and Renee Poirier, a freshman, had a clutch RBI. I thought was a bit of a turning point.”

PLAINVILLE, Mass. -- On an afternoon where King Philip's ace pitcher Meghan Rico was not her standard, near-perfect self, her teammates made sure it wasn't going to be a problem.

The top-ranked Warriors pushed across five runs in the bottom of the fifth inning, highlighted by a three-run homer by UMass-bound catcher Olivia Godin, and then held off a seventh inning rally by No. 7 Mansfield to escape with a 5-4 victory at Watters Field.

Having mustered just two hits off of Hornets ace Trish Hansen through the first four innings, the Warriors (2-0) got to work with the bats in the fifth. Cayleigh McCarthy (two hits) led off the frame with a base hit, Rico reached on a fielders choice two batters later and Hailey Mullen singled to load the bases.

Up to the plate stepped Colgate-commit Meg Carnase, who ripped a two-run double into left to bring home McCarthy and Rico with the game's first two runs. Godin was next, and the senior launched the first pitch she saw well over the fence in left to score Mullen and Carnase ahead of her.

"We came in and really lit a fire under each other," Godin said of the rally. "We were like, 'we've played [Hansen] so many times, we know what she throws, lets go. Lets get it going.' We have our 2-3-4 [hitters] struggling to get on base and we hit better than this so we just wanted to get it done."

NOT A REPEAT OF LAST WEEK
Staring at a 5-0 deficit against the state's reigning Player of the Year, you might as well have just put a "W" next to KP in the Hockomock League' standings column and move on to the next one. Mansfield already found themselves in a similar situation in its season opener, having spotted North Attleborough an early 6-0 lead from which they could not recover.

On this day, the Hornets decided to fight it out. Mansfield opened the seventh with a single by Alexis Stanley and a four-pitch walk by Lauren Boen. Two batters later, Bri Chiusano (two hits) belted a rocket over the centerfield fence to cut the deficit to 5-3.

After an out, Hansen helped her own cause with a base hit and catcher Kelly English brought her all the way around with a double to make it 5-4 before Rico finally retired the last hitter.

"Coming in 5-0 against Rico, you just go in say, 'Alright, rally caps,'" Mansfield head coach Jinneane Sperrazza. "Our left fielder, who got the bunt sign all game, comes up and ropes a single. Our next girl is a sophomore, she got a walk. and we're thinking something's going to happen. Then we have Bri, who I'm thinking is going to rip a single and we'll score a run and instead she hits a 3-run home run. I couldn't be any prouder of these kids."

AN ATYPICAL PERFORMANCE ON AN ATYPICAL DAY
Not only did the sun disappear somewhere around the third inning, leaving nothing but a cool wind breezing through the Plainville Athletic Complex, but both teams also had to deal with the sound of a chainsaw grinding away in the background. A television crew from the National Geographic Network's reality show 'American Chainsaw' was hard at work carving up a tree just behind the Hornets dugout, creating not only unneeded noise but sending ashes of chewed up tree bark wafting through the air.

Rico, who is a threat to toss a perfect game with 15-plus strikeouts every time she takes the mound, seemed to struggle a bit. Mansfield got runners aboard in every inning but the sixth, and got the leadoff batter on five times.

The Hornets made Rico work for this one, consistently getting deep into the count and forcing her throw a staggering 115 pitches through the first five innings. That said, the George Washington-bound standout escaped every tough situation, including inducing a game-ending groundout to squash the Hornets seventh inning rally.

"We're used to having Rico be next to perfect," KP head coach Jim Leonard said. "She's usually a very efficient pitcher and they took her deep in the count. Not the typical performance that we've come to expect from her but when we don't get that we need to make sure that other aspects of our game step up."

Today we kick off our high school coverage of the spring season with our preseason MIAA softball All-State team, as selected by ESPNBoston.com staff and state high school coaches.

STARTING ROTATION
Kiara Amos, Sr., Malden
Trish Hansen, Sr., Mansfield
Meghan Rico, Sr., King Philip
Sarah Ropiak, Sr., Acton-Boxborough
Shannon Smith, Jr., Milford

STARTING NINE
Taylor Archer, Sr. C/3B, Milford
Patty Borges, Sr. SS, Coyle-Cassidy
Alex Burgess, Sr. OF, Chelmsford
Bri Chiusano, Sr. OF, Mansfield
Lexi Gifford, Sr. IF/OF, Natick
Olivia Godin, Sr. C, King Philip
Nicole Lundstrom, Jr. C, Dighton-Rehoboth
Christina Raso, Sr. SS, Burlington
Reilly Weiners, Jr. C, Agawam

"BEST OF THE REST"
Meg Carnase, Sr. P, King Philip
Katie Casey, Jr. P, Braintree
Katherine Clark, Sr. P, Coyle-Cassidy
Allie Colleran, Jr. SS, Concord-Carlisle
Meghan Colleran, Soph. P, North Attleborough
Stephanie Cornish, Sr. SS, Abington
Abby Curran, Sr. IF, Bishop Fenwick
Alexis DeBrosse, Jr. 2B, New Bedford
Audrey Dolloff, Sr. P, Bridgewater-Raynham
Maggie Hoffman, Jr. P, Avon
Kaleigh Finigan, Jr. C, St. Mary's (Lynn)
Natalie Leone, Jr. 2B, Ashland
Rachel Levine, Jr. CF, Milford
Abby Johnson, Sr. SS, Chelmsford
Galen Kerr, Jr. P, Concord-Carlisle
Jackie Kielty, Jr. P, Middleborough
Kayli Moniz, Sr. SS, Fairhaven
Breanna Monroe, Sr. OF, Shrewsbury
Shannon Orton, Sr. P, Case
Kaci Panarelli, Jr. C, Shrewsbury
Meghan Rich, Sr. P, Chelmsford
Julie LeClair, Sr. 3B, Coyle-Cassidy
Cayleigh McCarthy, Sr. 1B, King Philip
Madi Shaw, Soph. SS, Bridgewater-Raynham
Alyssa Siegmann, Sr. SS, King Philip

The record books will forever show that King Philip won its second straight Division 1 state softball championship with a 1-0 decision over Amherst last month.

However, upon further review, the Warriors might not have scored a run at all.

Jim Pignatiello of the Daily Hampshire Gazette examined yesterday in this story the interesting circumstances surrounding KP's game-winning run scored in the sixth inning.

The controversy stems from Hurricanes head coach Kacey Schmitt's appeal that a KP runner didn't touch third base while rounding the bases on Meg Carnase's would-be game-winning hit. The bases-loaded, bases-clearing hit looked to score three runs, until umpires then ruled the third runner out, giving KP a 2-0 lead. After conferring, the umpiring crew then awarded the Warriors one run, citing that it was the second runner attempting to score who'd missed the third base bag.

However, Pignatiello's investigation of the National Federation of State High School Association's rulebook showed KP's lone run shouldn't have been.

"The game should have remained scoreless according to National Federation of State High School Associations softball rule 9.1.1 exception D, which states 'a run is not scored if the runner advances to home plate during action in which the third out is declared on an appeal play resulting in a force out (This play takes precedence if enforcing it would negate a score).'"

Still, Jim Leonard's team remain champions, as MIAA spokesman Paul Wetzel pointed out.

"Once the game is over, even if the umpires made a provable mistake, the game is over," Wetzel told Pignatiello. "Even with the premise being that the umpires in the end made a mistake, that mistake dies with the game. There's just nothing you can do about it."

WORCESTER, Mass. -- When Meghan Rico is in the circle, she remains in control. It’s not so much as King Philip head coach Jim Leonard says that perfection is “almost expected,” but nothing seems to faze her.

During Saturday’s Division 1 state championship softball game at Worcester State’s Rockwood Field, Rico found herself in a serious pickle in the sixth inning against Western Mass. champion Amherst. There were runners on first and third with one out.

No fear.

Rico reared back a little bit harder and came back with two of her 19 strikeouts to end the inning and preserve the scoreless tie. In an uncharacteristic moment, the George Washington commit gave a fist pump while sprinting off the field.

It was a big out.

And, as it would turn out, it was the difference after the Warriors took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the sixth on Meg Carnase’s double.

Rico returned to strike out the side in the seventh to provide KP with its second straight state title and finish the season undefeated at 26-0.

“We needed that right there,” Rico said of getting out of the sixth-inning jam. “If they score right there, it was going to be really hard to come back to score against them. I knew we had to score first, we had to be the ones to score and we did that.”

Runs came at a premium as the state’s top pitchers squared off in the circle with Rico opposing the Hurricanes’ Emma Mendoker.

Mendoker, the East Carolina commit, kept the Warriors hitless through 5 2/3 innings, only to take the hard-luck loss in the end. The Gatorade Massachusetts Softball Player of the Year finished with 10 strikeouts while surrendering only two hits.

“I think the main thing for Emma is that she has such an arsenal of both movement and speed that if keeps them off balance,” Hurricanes head coach Kacey Schmitt said.

Rico snapped Mendoker’s no-hit bid with a single to right-center to start the two-out rally. Courtesy runner Hailey Mullen came around to score the game’s only run on Carnase’s bases-loaded double after Amherst centerfielder Athena Donta slipped while trying to make a play on the fly ball.

It looked as though Carnase’s hit had cleared the bases, but the inning ended as an appeal made to the umpires was upheld finding that Jenn Robillard hadn’t touched third base while scoring what would’ve been KP’s third run. Instead, it was the third out.

“There were two strikes against me, so I was just trying to protect the plate,” Carnase said. “It was close, so I just swung at it and fell in.”



Amherst (23-2) jumped on Rico immediately with lead-off hitter Quianna Diaz-Patterson (2-for-3, 3 SBs) and third baseman Simone Frank banging out hits to start the game. The Hurricanes stranded both runners on base as Rico reeled off three strikeouts.

It was the beginning of a chain of 10 straight strikeouts by Rico, which helped her equal her single-game career high of 19.

“When there’s runners on base, it’s almost like she takes it personally,” Leonard said of Rico. “It was huge for us to strand those base runners in the first and again in the sixth innings, to keep those runners standing at third.”

Diaz-Patterson, the UMass commit, was again the fulcrum to the Hurricanes’ sixth-inning rally. Frank reached on a fielder’s choice via the bunt, but again the Amherst runners advanced no further.

Rico got Zoe Dillon-Davidson swinging and Mendoker looking to end the inning.

“We knew how their hitters hit,” Warriors catcher Olivia Godin said. “We went to the Amherst-Milford [state semifinal] game, so we knew that some batter we couldn’t pitch inside and we just had to go all away, off the plate. Mendoker’s great, so we had to go off plate to her.”



All they needed was just one run.

“It was a lot of pressure to get that perfect season,” Rico said. “We wanted it so bad that I had no doubt in my mind that we weren’t going to have a perfect season, but just to finish it like this is amazing.”

TAUNTON, Mass. – The game plan for King Philip softball is usually simple: Hand the ball to ace Meghan Rico, scratch across a run or two and take the win.

While the Warriors are used to seeing their pitcher near perfection, Norwood put up a rare two runs against Rico in the Division 1 South final Friday night at Taunton High’s Jack Tripp Field.

However, the defending D1 state champions showed that they’re more than just pitching, exhibiting a fine offense while playing a little small ball with some shows of power mixed in. With a 4-2 win over the Mustangs, the Warriors continued their quest toward a second-straight state title.

“To many, they expect perfection time and time again,” KP head coach Jim Leonard said of Rico’s performance. “When you face another unbeaten team, they have quality hitters, good defense, they have good pitching. I thought Rico showed that she was equal to the task if not better.”

The Warriors (24-0) started fast, opening scoring with a run in the home half of the first. Leadoff hitter Jenn Robillard sent one to the left-center field fence off of Mustangs starter Ali Maloof. Alyssa Siegmann followed with a perfectly placed bunt single to score Robillard.

Anna Kelley plated KP’s second run in the third on an RBI single and Meg Carnase gave the Warriors a 3-1 lead in the fifth with run-scoring double.

KP first baseman Cayleigh McCarthy provided the exclamation point to the victory, belting Maloof’s 2-2 offering 225 feet over the left-center field fence for a home run.

Rico, while not perfect as usual, was still strong. Only one of the runs allowed were earned with Sarah Eckhardt driving a run on a fielder’s choice in the sixth. She surrendered two hits—one a bunt single by Eckhardt and the other a double to lead off the sixth from Norwood’s No. 9 hitter Kayla Garczynski.

“It’s bound to happen sometime,” Rico said. “They’re a good hitting team. All of the teams we’re going to play from here on out are going to be good hitting teams, so I expected them to score some runs.”

Still, it wasn’t as effortless as Rico typically makes it look. She went 13 pitches deep with Mustangs feared third baseman and UConn signee Lauren Duggan in a battle in the fourth inning. Rico finally got Duggan to succumb on a pop-up to catcher Olivia Godin with an inside screwball.

She was great when she needed to be.

“I think she showed what she’s made out of,” Leonard said of Rico. “She’s a composed young lady, but she battled.

“The combination of her and [Olivia] Godin behind the plate, I don’t call any pitches. I have the ultimate trust in Olivia to call and handle the pitching staff. It’s comforting to have that kind of competence behind the plate.”

After ending the Mustang’s perfect season (21-0 previously), the Warriors will play the North sectional champion in the Eastern Mass. final at Taunton on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

Is it possible to get any better than this?

Two days after winning an extra-innings thriller with No. 3 Milford under the lights, No. 1 King Philip completed its perfect regular season by defeating Oliver Ames, 5-0, thanks to yet another perfect game in the circle by its ace.

Meghan Rico fanned 16 batters and allowed no walks or hits to improve to 15-0 and rack up her second perfect game of the season. It's the third time a KP pitcher has thrown a perfect game, with No. 2 starter Meg Carnase throwing one last week. The junior George Washington commit also went 2 for 3 at the plate to help the winning cause.

After years of recent pitching dominance, it's tough to put Rico's amazing season in perspective. But consider this: last year's ace, current UMass freshman Maggie Quealy, had 120 strikeouts on the season. This season, in 102 innings, she has 220 strikeouts and allowed just 20 hits for an ERA of 0.074.

"Right off the first inning, you could see she had command of mound," head coach Jim Leonard said. "She was just really on fire. Nothing change for her from the beginning of the game to the last at bat, she didn’t change her performance.

"To see someone throw two perfect games in one season, and looking at the parallel as a perfect regular season as a team, to have three perfect games shared by pitchers, I'm kinda pleased with all that symmetry. It's neat for us as team to be involved in a game like that."

The Warriors finish the regular season 20-0, with 17 of those wins coming as shutouts. They've allowed just three runs all season long.

PLAINVILLE, Mass. – They could’ve gone all night and there likely wouldn’t have been a resolution.

No. 1 King Philip eventually pulled out a 1-0 win over No. 3 Milford Tuesday night in Plainville with two of the state’s best softball pitchers going head to head. The Warriors’ Meghan Rico and Scarlet Hawks ace Shannon Smith played dueling banjos, placing zero after zero on the board through seven innings.

Milford threatened to score in the top of the eighth, but it was King Philip (19-0) who earned the walk-off win with Tori Constantin laying down a perfect suicide squeeze scoring Hailey Mullen from third, dealing the Scarlet Hawks their first defeat of the season.

“It’s always rewarding to see when all the practice you put in leads to really good execution,” said Warriors head coach Jim Leonard, who led his team to a win over Milford in last year’s Division 1 state title game. “The girls have worked very hard, giving up Sundays and extra time in order to get things done. A team like that, we knew it was going to come down to one play and having them make the right play at the right time.”

Rico started the game on fire, retiring the first 10 Milford (15-1) batters in order via the strikeout. The George Washington commit finished the game with 16 strikeouts and allowing just two hits.

However, she had to rely on her defense to get out of a pickle in the eighth inning.

Softball tie-breaker rules place a runner on second base to start each extra-inning frame. After the first batter struck out, the runner advanced to third. With one out, Milford’s Sam Bonvino laid down a suicide squeeze attempt, only to see the ball pop straight up. Warriors catcher Olivia Godin snared the ball and fired to third to double up the retreating runner, ending the inning.

“They’re great hitters,” Rico said of Milford’s lineup. “I was really nervous coming into this game, but my defense was strong, our hitting was strong.”

KP scratched across the game-winning run thanks to some skillfully executed small ball.

With Mullen on second to start the inning, Godin put down a sacrifice bunt. Constantin followed that with another perfectly placed bunt between Smith and Scarlet Hawks first baseman Caroline Atkinson, who was shading in anticipation of the bunt.

“I knew getting up there that I was going to have to squeeze with Hailey [Mullen] on third,” Constantin said. “I just set in my head that I had to get it done no matter what.”

It appeared the Warriors might come up with the game-winning run in the bottom of the seventh. With one on and one out, Meg Carnase lined a single over the second base bag into center. KP center fielder Alyssa Siegmann looked as though she might have the legs to score from second base, but when rounding third, she was met by Leonard who was holding up the sign to stay just there.

“We had good hitters coming up and we have a lot of confidence in our hitters,” Leonard said, explaining his rationale for not waving Siegmann homeward bound. “You don’t want to take the bat out of their hands. You’ve got runners on second and third with [third baseman Anna] Kelly coming up.”

Kelly put a jolt into Smith’s 2-2 offering to the opposite field. However, she didn’t get quite enough as ball fell into the right fielder’s glove, several feet shy of fence.

“She put a few more feet on that ball and it’s all over,” Leonard added.

Smith took the hard-luck loss after striking out 11, while allowing seven hits and three walks.

KP stranded nine runners on base.