Cape Tech Bats Put Up Huge Numbers In Strong Start For Softball

PLEASANT LAKE – Surprising or not, there are softball games with scores of gaudy double-digit deficits where even the winning side emerges feeling vexed.

An incessant number of walks often is the explanation for such results, leaving the benefiting team with a sense of unproductivity, despite the win. But that precisely wasn’t the case for the Cape Cod Tech softball team last Thursday as they hit their way through every bit of a 29-5 five-inning win against Mashpee.

“The fact that they were mashing the ball, I love it because it builds their confidence,” second-year head coach Alex Riker said. “The more they hit, the more confident they feel.”

The game, shortened via run rule, will in fact go down in the books as a comeback, as Cape Tech trailed Mashpee after the top of the second. Then the Crusaders “settled down and the bats woke up,” Riker said. By the time Cape Tech made three outs in their half of the second, they had exploded out to an 18-3 lead. 

“Once we get started, we just keep going,” freshman Lydia Stratton said. “We don't really stop. I mean, once one person gets a hit, everyone just starts to hit. Everyone feeds off each other's energy, so we feel like we can do that every game.”

Stratton drove in two runs across two singles and a double. Junior Senny Walton had five runs batted in on three singles and a home run. Seniors Kallyn Greaney and Bailey McMakin each added RBI singles. Sophomore Grace Smith had two RBIs on a triple and three singles, while sophomore Alana Harty had two RBIs on three singles. Senior Lila Sullivan tallied five RBIs across a single and two triples, and Cailey Garrity drove in four on four singles. 

McMakin pitched three innings, followed by two innings by Stratton in relief. 

“I told these girls we have a chance to be a squad,” Riker said. “You’ve just got to believe it. You don't put weight on it. You’ve just got to know you're going to try your hardest, and as long as you know you're going to try your hardest and present yourself that way, good things are going to happen. And they're showing up.”

The performance put the Crusaders at 3-1, already equaling last season’s win total. All three wins in 2025 came against Mashpee; this year, Cape Tech defeated Mashpee 30-10 in the season opener and Martha’s Vineyard 10-2 before Thursday’s win. 

The sole loss so far for Cape Tech, playing in Division 5, came when they fell 13-8 to Nauset, a 5-2 Division 3 team (as of The Chronicle’s deadline). Pitching in that game was freshman Lillian Winkfield, who rounds out the staff with Stratton and McMakin. 

And the Crusaders are clearly hitting the ball hard. They’ve scored at least eight runs in all four games, hitting double digits in three of those. They have a run differential of 47.

“In the beginning with the scrimmages, it was pretty rough, but it was also really cold, and I think that had a big factor in it,” Stratton said. “But now that it's warm, we're getting a lot of hits, doing really good on defense, and I think that has a big part in it too.”

Riker, for his part, only stepped into the gig as head coach of the softball team at the last minute the season prior. He coached football, basketball and baseball but, at that point, had no experience with softball. He couldn’t only do it for just the one year though, he said.

“These girls are awesome,” Riker said. “They're good kids.”

Having never played fast-pitch softball, Riker watches Youtube videos and reads about the sport. Assistant coach Emily Hardy provides critical help in addition. In that sense, then, it’s a real case study in coaching. At the end of the day though, the players play the game, and they’ve been doing that well to begin the season.

“They're putting the work in, and I tell them, it's up to them,” Riker said. “Like I can speak until I’m blue in the face, but if they respond, they try their best, good things are going to happen.”