BEDFORD — Bedford High softball skipper Dennis Walsh has never seen anything like it.
Alyx Rossi has been that dominant, and Tewksbury was the Boston College commit’s latest victim on Sunday morning.
Rossi registered 18 strikeouts while allowing only three hits and two walks as No. 3 Bedford rolled against No. 6 Tewksbury, 6-0, in the Division 2 round of 8 at Bedford High.
Bedford (20-1) and Rossi have yet to allow a run all tournament and advance to the Final Four for the second consecutive season. The Bucs will meet No. 2 Hopkinton (20-3).
In three state tournament games this spring, Rossi has amassed 51 strikeouts and scattered only four hits. Her performance on Sunday was freshly removed from a perfect game against Duxbury.
“She’s just bringing it every time,” Walsh said. “She’s hitting her spots, she’s not getting down when weird things happen and she’s killing it.”
Tewksbury (19-4) fell to Bedford on the same stage a year ago and ends its season after a successful campaign in the Merrimack Valley Conference that yielded a share of the league title.
The Redmen made Rossi work more than she had all tournament, drawing her first two walks and notching three hits against the ace.
“We competed as best as I think (we) can be against her,” said Redmen head coach Kirsten Dick. “She’s accomplished a lot and Bedford is having a great season.”
But in her first season at the helm, the Redmen turned in the second-best record in program history and climbed back to the Elite 8 after graduating a strong senior class last spring.
“We just pushed through all the noise,” Dick said. “People doubted us, I think other teams doubted us … you never write out Tewksbury softball. The girls just pushed through and proved everyone wrong.”
It took three Tewksbury batters and one powerful swing of the bat for Rossi to make an immediate impact in the first inning. After retiring the side with two strikeouts and a pop out to open the game, Rossi turned on the first pitch she saw at the plate for a two-run home run over the right field wall.
The inning began with a leadoff double off the bat of Becca Sobol and continued when a Redmen error plated a third Bedford run to spot Rossi a three-run cushion.
“I haven’t let up more than two runs all year, so knowing that, and that was against L-S, which is a really strong team, was kind of nice because I know that I historically haven’t let up that many runs so I should be able to maintain that as long as we score more,” Rossi said of the early run support.
Bedford’s ace was almost untouchable. She scattered isolated hits in the third, fourth and seventh and walked a batter in the fifth and sixth, but the Tewksbury offense couldn’t mount any meaningful momentum against the flamethrower.
Vanessa Iandoli’s two-out single in the third was followed by Rossi’s third strikeout of the frame, while Kayleigh Martin’s leadoff single in the fourth was quickly nixed after she was caught stealing.
Perhaps Tewksbury’s most significant threat came in the fifth, when Jordan Doucette drew a leadoff walk. Sydney Whalen’s sacrifice bunt placed a Tewksbury runner in scoring position, but Rossi answered with two strikeouts.
Walsh said he knew Tewksbury boasted a high-octane offense and emphasized avoiding extra-base hits.
“They can hit,” Walsh said. “They’re awesome — they hit all year. I looked at their stats all year. They can hit anybody, and we weren’t afraid of hits.”
Meanwhile, Gabriella Davis kept Tewksbury’s offense within striking distance. After Bedford’s three-run salvo in the first, Davis posted three scoreless innings to keep the Bucs at bay.
“She bounces back like that like no problem at all,” Dick said of Davis. “She knows what to do, she knows how to improve the next pitch and the next batter, and that’s huge to have a pitcher with that mentality.”
Bedford eventually broke through with a busy fifth, doubling its lead to 6-0 after a flurry of Redmen gaffes had a hand in the three-run frame. Bedford reached on an error, a walk and a bunt to load the bases with no outs before eventually adding insurance runs after a Redmen error and a two-run double from Sobol.
Tewksbury threw another scare at Rossi in the sixth with runners on first and second— reaching on a dropped third strike and a walk — but Tewksbury couldn’t orchestrate a hit. Whalen then singled in the seventh around a trio of strikeouts from Rossi.
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