Softball Provides Bright Spot in Tough Week for Rockets

May 1, 2026
• Out of the four games we covered, softball was the only team to come away with a win. 

Needham baseball, girls lacrosse and boys volleyball all fell at home this week, while softball earned a win over rival Wellesley.

Baseball opened the week against Newton North on April 27, but despite an impressive outing from Will Cassidy on the mound, the Rockets fell to the Tigers 2-0. 

Cassidy pitched six innings, giving up just two earned runs and striking out 10 batters, including five looking. He also gave up eight hits, including the two-run home run that proved to be the difference. Newton North’s pitcher, Zahgros Tanner, shined as well, pitching a complete-game shutout. He allowed just three hits and struck out eight batters.

Leandro Perez hit the two-run homer off Cassidy in the top of the third inning, and the Rockets were unable to respond, struggling to get their offense going once again. Needham is now averaging just 1.7 runs per game. Freshman Mitchell Pollack had a nice day at the plate for the Rockets, going 2-for-2 with a double. 

Needham dropped their next game, 3-0 at Wellesley, on April 29. The Rockets are now 3-7 and sit at No. 32 out of 60 teams in the latest MIAA Division One power rankings.

Girls lacrosse also fell to Wellesley this week, 19-5, at home on April 28, bringing their record to 2-8. 

The Rockets did not have an answer for Brown commit Tara Battaglino, who scored eight of the Raiders’ 19 goals. She tallied her 300th career goal in the game and dominated the draws, winning 19 to Needham’s eight.

Emi Gander opened the scoring for Wellesley just 40 seconds into the game and added another at the 9:07 mark. Frankie Adams put Needham on the board with 7:46 remaining in the first quarter to make it 2-1. The Raiders added two more goals to take a 4-1 lead into the second.

The Rockets responded with two goals 49 seconds apart, one from Adams and the other from Halli Kamke, to pull within one, prompting a Wellesley timeout. Out of that timeout, the Raiders scored five unanswered goals to go up 9-3 into halftime.

The Raiders continued to dominate in the second half, outscoring Needham 10-2. Lila Jantzen scored for the Rockets in the third quarter, and Adams completed her hat trick in the fourth.

On April 29, the Rockets fell to Bay State Conference foe Natick, 17-13. They are currently ranked 27th in the MIAA Division One power rankings. Needham will look to get back in the win column on May 5 against Milton. That game will be streamed live on needhamchannel.org and The Needham Channel YouTube page.

Softball defeated Wellesley 8-0 in a matchup between two Bay State Conference teams with five wins. 

Audrey Muzikant pitched a complete-game shutout for Needham in the win, allowing just three hits while striking out four. 

Muzikant ran into trouble in the first inning, loading the bases, but she struck out the next two batters and induced a popup to get out of the jam. The Rockets took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first with an RBI single from Kaitlyn Cheng. 

The score stayed 1-0 Needham until the bottom of the fifth inning, when Needham started to pull away. Bailey O’Hearn led off the inning with a triple, who scored on a wild pitch from Wellesley pitcher Abby Brown. Ellie Gerstel later scored on an RBI single from Liv King to make it 3-0. 

Needham added five more runs in the sixth to secure the 8-0 victory. O’Hearn finished her strong day at the plate with a two-run single, finishing 2 for 3 with two runs and two RBIs. 

Softball will host No. 39 Natick (3-8) on Monday, May 4. That game will be live streamed on The Needham Channel Youtube page, weather permitting.

On Thursday, April 30, boys volleyball was defeated by Brookline in five sets (25-16, 22-25, 25-23, 23-25, 12-15), falling to 8-2 on the year. 

The Rockets’ two losses have come against the two teams ranked above them in the MIAA Division One Power Rankings: Natick and Brookline. 

Will Rozman led Needham with 23 kills, while Matthew Cloonan collected 17 kills and three aces. But, those performances weren’t enough to overpower the defending state champions, led by Amir Tomer with 19 kills and Alec Smagula with 40 assists and three kills. 

Needham controlled the first set, winning 25-16 after the game was delayed 40 minutes due to an issue with the Brookline bus. The Warriors, playing in their first game in two weeks, made a few uncharacteristic mistakes in the set. 

Brookline came back to take the second set, despite Needham tying the set at a few different points. Tied at 19, Brookline coach Lexi De La Cruz called a timeout and the Warriors went on a 3-0 run out of the break. The Rockets got as close as 24-22, but lost the set on a service error. 

The Rockets built a five point lead in the third set, but  Brookline scored three straight points to fight off set point before Rozman finished the set with a kill to take it 25-23. 

The Warriors took the fourth set 25-23, pushing the Rockets to a fifth set match for the first time this season. Needham never led in the fifth, eventually dropping the set 15-12. 

Needham will look to get back on track on May 1 on the road against Milton. The Rockets will visit the Warriors for a rematch on May 14.