Rockets get pair of wins over Braintree

April 11th, 2025

Needham softball and girls lacrosse picked up wins over Braintree in their home openers this week, defeating the Wamps 10-4 and 8-5, respectively. 

On Wednesday, April 9, softball kicked things off, putting up nine runs in the second and third innings to take the lead, which they would hold for the rest of the game. 

Jaclyn McPhee led things off for Braintree with a triple into left field and was brought in by a sacrifice fly from Brooke Wilson to take a 1-0 lead over the Rockets in the top of the first. Needham would answer, getting two runners on base with walks. With two outs, Morgan Kraft hit a line drive into center field to tie the game at one. 

Pitcher Kaitlyn Cheng forced three quick outs in the top of the second, leaving the door open for the Rockets to take the lead. After a lead-off single from Stephanie Sucher, Needham loaded the bases with no outs. With Sucher on third, Wamps’ pitcher Gabby Bennett missed the pass from her catcher, allowing Sucher to score the go-ahead run on the error. Bennett then walked two Rockets in a row, bringing in two more runs to put Needham up 4-1 at the end of the second inning. 

Braintree switched their pitcher in the third inning, bringing in Shay Rexrode, but the bottom of the third was just as eventful as the second, with six Rockets reaching the bases and five runs scoring. Sucher started the scoring for Needham in the inning with an RBI double to bring Kraft home. After that, Kaitlyn Cheng hit an RBI single to make the score 7-1, followed by Maddie Navales, who got two runners in off her single into center field. Kelsey Pittman would add the Rockets’ final run of the day off of a triple. 

After holding Braintree scoreless for five innings, Cheng gave up three singles, one on a fielder’s choice, to load the bases for the Wamps, bringing Sophie Carroll to bat with no outs. Caroll hit a high fly ball that the Rockets couldn’t collect, scoring one run on the error. Jaclyn McPhee scored the next run on a popped-up ball that got lost in the sun by the Rockets’ defense to make the score 10-3. 

With two outs, Wilson would get another hit for Braintree, this time deep into center field to score the runner on third. But Needham made an impressive defensive play, tagging Wilson at second to close the game with a final score of 10-4. 

The Rockets improve to 1-1 on the season with the win and will go on the road to face Bedford on Friday, April 11, at 4 p.m. 

The next day, April 10, girls lacrosse defeated the Wamps at Memorial Field for their third win of the season. 

After giving up the first goal of the game, Needham netted four unanswered in the first quarter to take the lead. But they would stall offensively and were unable to add another goal until late in the third quarter. 

Bella Duffy opened the scoring for Braintree, getting a side-arm shot past Needham goalie Olivia Leschinski to put the Wamps up 1-0. But Sophia Meade would answer on the following possession, scoring off of a 12-meter shot for the Rockets. Needham would score three more goals in less than two minutes to take a 4-1 lead at the end of the first. Duffy would get her second goal of the game with 3:17 remaining in the second quarter to pull the Wamps within two heading into halftime. 

Less than two minutes into the third quarter, Duffy completed the hat trick to shrink Needham’s lead to 4-3. After over seven scoreless minutes, Emmie Verville found the back of the net off an eight-meter shot to put the Rockets back up by two heading into the fourth. 

Sami Bonasia scored twice early in the fourth for Needham before Duffy was able to net another for Braintree. Holding a three-goal lead late in the game, first-year Callan Siletto snuck behind the Wamps’ defense and went over the goalie for her first career goal to put Needham up 8-4. Duffy would add one more goal for Braintree, but the Rockets were able to hold off the comeback attempt. 

Leschinski had an impressive 11 saves in net for Needham, while Bonasia led the team in scoring with four goals. 

The team will head to Wayland on Sunday, April 13, to make up an earlier season game that was postponed.

Sports Anchor Ben Gilman has the highlights of Softball vs. Braintree below:

The highlights above ran as part of the Needham Channel News, a weekly newscast airing on The Needham Channel every Thursday at 7:30pm. The Needham Channel News can be found on the Community Channel: Comcast 9, Astound 15 and Verizon 29. Most Thursdays it also can be viewed on our HD Channel on Verizon 2129, Astound 613 and streaming on this site.