Massachusetts
Seven high school sports takeaways from a Wednesday stocked with walk-off wins on the diamond – The Boston Globe
Where to start? There was Ben Dowdall’s two-run double to give West Bridgewater a 2-1 win over Case, and Liv Moeckel’s two-run double that pushed Central Catholic to a 3-2 win over Chelmsford, Marblehead’s Tessa Francis joined the party, doubling in the ninth for a 2-0 win over Danvers.
Tommy O’Donnell rapped a walk-off hit for No. 4 BC High, which rallied from down 7-0 midway through the fifth inning to defeat No. 3 Taunton, 8-7. Needham’s Alex Rufo delivered a walk-off single to beat St. John’s Prep, 7-6, and Chase Lepore slapped the winner in Masconomet’s 8-7 victory against Lawrence.
On the lacrosse field, Masconomet’s Tony Giachinno had both the tying goal late in regulation and the overtime winner, finishing with five goals as the Chieftains sent Marblehead packing with an 11-10 win.
Apponequet senior Abby Bradley notched her 200th career goal during a five-goal, four-assist performance in a 19-0 win over Greater New Bedford.
King Philips senior Makenzie McDevitt did the same, scoring four times, including her 200th career goal, in a 17-10 win over Grafton. McDevitt is committed to Boston University.
Bridgewater-Raynham’s Emily Keefe joined the 300-point club with a 5-point (4 goals, assist) day for the Trojans, who defeated Oliver Ames, 16-9, in the Trojan Classic.
Bridgewater-Raynham Girls Varsity Lacrosse:
Bridgewater-Raynham 16 Oliver Ames 9
April 23, 2025. The Bridgewater-Raynham Girls Varsity Lacrosse team won the Trojan Classic Championship as Bridgewater-Raynham’s Emily Keefe had a monumental day in the win by getting her 300th… pic.twitter.com/hMbtg3ARZN— West Bridgewater News (@WBNewsFacts) April 24, 2025
Breanna Fontes, Joseph Case — The senior carried a hot bat into a 25-0 win over West Bridgewater, homering and driving in seven runs.
Olivia Ormond, Belmont — The sophomore delivered 14 strikeouts in a 2-0 no-hitter of Lexington, while her older sister, Amelia, provided two hits and scored a run in support.
Akiira’Ley Vazquez, Greater New Bedford — The sophomore struck out 13 while recording her first varsity no-hitter, beating Fairhaven, 7-2.
Not content with one homer, Woburn’s Avery Simpson and Nobles’s Laney Mead both launched a pair of blasts on Wednesday, while Mead joined by teammate Alexa Georgantas, who also left the yard.
Dighton-Rehoboth’s Emma Horrocks and Kylie Smith went back-to-back in the fifth inning and Westport’s Lauryn Souza and Jayda Pequita both hammered blasts. The rest of the day’s round-trippers belonged to Braintree’s Luke Joyce, BC High’s Jack Darcy, Milton Academy’s Sadie Patel, Haverhill’s Ava Moscaritolo, and Pentucket’s Kam Bonneau.
5. Daily lacrosse leaderboard
Sierra King, King Philip, 8
Mikey Ferraro, Bishop Feehan, 6
Jake Staples, Haverhill, 6
Avery Valicenti, Archbishop Williams, 6
Kenny Wisniewski, Apponequet, 6
Abby Bradley, Apponequet, 5
Tony Giachinno, Masconomet, 5
Dexter Izzo, Bishop Feehan, 5
Cooper Masso, Bishop Feehan, 5
Ashley McLaren, Bridgewater-Raynham, 5
Caitlyn Naughton, Walpole, 5
Wisniewski, Apponequet, 12
Will Levrault, Apponequet, 11
Bradley, Apponequet, 9
Ferraro, Bishop Feehan, 9
Blake Masso, Bishop Feehan, 9
King, King Philip, 8
Cece Levrault, Apponequet, 8
Mason Thompson, King Philip, 8
Masso, Bishop Feehan, 7
McLaren, Bridgewater-Raynham, 7
Will Carey, Masconomet, 6
Emily Fleming, Archbishop Williams, 6
Izzo, Bishop Feehan, 6
6. Daily strikeout leaderboard
Gabe Zuber, Apponequet, 16
Maddie Grant, Georgetown, 15
Olivia Ormond, Belmont, 14
Tessa Francis, Marblehead, 13
Akiira’Ley Vazquez, Greater New Bedford, 13
Max Deroche, Braintree, 12
Edy LaTour, Dighton-Rehoboth, 11
Ellie Beigel, Rivers, 10
Jordan O’Malley, Salem, 10
Jag Garces, West Bridgewater, 9
Billy Gavin, Malden, 9
Sophia Hahn, Nobles, 9
Anthony Herbert, Bishop Fenwick, 9
Brayden Mercier, St. John’s (S), 9
Ava Moscaritolo, Haverhill, 9
Max Silvia, Peabody, 9
Zahgros Tanner, Newton North, 9
Reese Taylor, Apponequet, 9
Will Trach, Shawsheen, 9
McCoy Walsh, King Philip, 9
Malden Catholic graduate KC Ugwuakazi, who played three years at Stoughton, announced he will be transferring close to home, shifting from East Texas A&M to Merrimack. The 6-foot-9-inch sophomore, who also played one season at Cheshire Academy, averaged 5.3 points and 3.7 rebounds in 15 minutes per game in his second season with the Lions.
Duxbury senior righthanded pitcher Brady Wilson, who also plays catcher and outfield, announced his commitment to Wesleyan.
Several teams took advantage of the April vacation week to travel together. Mansfield baseball stopped by the White House on Wednesday, while several of the 2024-25 state champions got to step on the field at Fenway Park.
Brendan Kurie can be reached at brendan.kurie@globe.com. Follow him on X @BrendanKurie.
Massachusetts
Massachusetts woman charged with DUI after Simsbury crash
SIMSBURY, Conn. (WTNH) — A Massachusetts woman was arrested Wednesday and charged with DUI after a crash in Simsbury, according to police.
The crash happened at around 2:15 p.m. on Hartford Avenue and Elm Street. Police responded to reports that one of the operators of the vehicles was unconscious, later becoming conscious.
Upon arrival, police found that operator, who was identified as 39-year-old Allison Beu of Southwick, Massachusetts, outside of her vehicle and interacting with the other involved parties.
The two occupants in the other vehicle were not transported to the hospital.
Beu was charged with DUI and failure to drive in proper lane.
Massachusetts
Massachusetts Governor Healey reacts to Brown University shooting
BOSTON (WWLP) – Following the shooting at Brown University, claiming the lives of two students and injuring nine others, Governor Healey is joining calls for anyone with information to contact authorities.
Police have not yet made any arrests in connection with the shooting, but they have released footage of a person of interest, calling on the public for help.
“At this time, we just have to encourage anyone in the public who may know something, see something, to immediately contact law enforcement,” said Healey.
Governor Healey says the Massachusetts State Police are in Rhode Island to assist with the investigation. The governor also spoke to mounting fear on college campuses, as the number of mass shootings in the United States exceeds the number of days so far in the year.
“In speaking with many of them, I know that they are taking all measures to ensure the safety of students and faculty, and certainly as a state we will do everything that we can to support those efforts,” said Governor Healey.
Local to western Massachusetts, UMass Amherst told 22News about their campus safety plans, which include adding emergency preparedness to student orientation and hosting optional active threat training for students, staff, and faculty.
The FBI is offering an award of up to $50,000 leading to an arrest and conviction. Anyone who thinks they may have information is encouraged to call the Providence Police.
Local News Headlines
WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Download the 22News Plus app on your TV to watch live-streaming newscasts and video on demand.
Massachusetts
This week’s jobs report was messy, but it shows cracks in the economy as 2026 looms – The Boston Globe
“We anticipated that once the government reopened there would be a few months of noisy data, and we would not get a real sense of where the jobs market is until early 2026. That is exactly what we got,” Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist at corporate advisory firm RSM, wrote in a blog post.
Despite potential statistical distortions from the shutdown, the report underscored that private employers remained stuck in low-fire, low-hire mode in October and November, while unemployment reached the highest rate in four years. Wage growth has stalled.
The Federal Reserve cut interest rates last week, with most officials saying they were more worried about the job market falling apart than inflation heating up. Tuesday’s payroll numbers show their concerns weren’t unfounded:
- The private sector added an average of 60,500 jobs in the past two months, extending a mostly anemic run of hiring, while the federal workforce declined by 168,000 as DOGE-related deferred resignations took effect.
- The jobless rate crept up to 4.6 percent in November from 4.4 percent in September. (The Labor Department didn’t tally unemployment in October due to the 43-day shutdown.)
- The number of people working part time because of economic conditions increased by more than 1 million, or 24 percent, over the past year.
“The labor market is showing growing fragility as firms grapple with uneven demand, elevated costs, [profit] margin pressure and persistent uncertainty,” economists Gregory Daco and Lydia Boussour said in note.
Here are some job trends I’ll be watching as we move into the new year.
Just a few sectors are in hiring mode.
The economy is vulnerable to a downturn when job growth is limited to a few sectors.
Health care and social assistance accounted for most of the new jobs in November, with a smaller gain in construction.
The economically sensitive manufacturing and transportation-warehousing industries lost jobs, as did information and finance, two largely white-collar sectors that are important employers in Massachusetts. (State-level data for November will be published later this month.)
Layoffs are low but will that last?
Employers are moving cautiously as they assess the impact of tariffs on their businesses, the direction of consumer spending, and whether artificial intelligence might allow them to operate with fewer workers.
Because the slowdown in hiring has yet to turn into a wave of firing, unemployment is relatively low by historical standards even after recent increases.
But there are concerning signs.
- The unemployment rate among Black workers climbed to 8.3 percent last month from 6.4 percent a year earlier even as white unemployment was little changed. Black workers are often hit first when hiring slows or layoffs begin.
- Similarly, the jobless rate for workers without a high school diploma has risen to 6.8 percent from 6 percent over the past year, and unemployment among 20-24 year olds is at its highest level (excluding the COVID shock) since 2015, the tail end of the long “jobless recovery” that followed the Great Recession.
Slack is building in the labor market.
The supply of workers is growing — surprising some economists who expected a decline amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and aggressive deportation campaign.
With hiring on the decline, many people are idle or not working as many hours as they would like.
The U-6 unemployment rate — a measure of labor-market slack that counts not only the officially unemployed, but also discouraged workers who’ve stopped looking and people stuck in part-time jobs who want full-time work — jumped to 8.7 percent in November from 8 percent in September. That’s the highest rate since early 2017 (excluding the COVID era).
How does the Fed react?
Last week, Fed chair Jerome Powell said the central bank’s quarter-point cut, plus two others since September, should be enough to shore up hiring while allowing inflation to resume falling toward officials’ 2 percent target.
Most Fed watchers don’t think the latest jobs report alters that view — for now — and are forecasting just two more rate cuts in 2026.
“The report contains enough softness to justify prior rate cuts, but it offers little support for significantly deeper easing ahead,” Kevin O’Neil at Brandywine Global, told Bloomberg.
Final thought
Massachusetts, which has been shedding jobs this year, seems to be leading the way for the rest of the country.
Call me cautiously pessimistic: Things will get worse before they get better.
Larry Edelman can be reached at larry.edelman@globe.com.
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