Congrats are in order to two superb female local athletes, former Souhegan baseball player Beth Greenwood and current Bishop Guertin girls basketball standout Hannah Muchemore.

First Greenwood: This week she was named to USA Baseball’s 34-player 2019 Women’s National Team Development Program, which will take place in Carrollton, Tex.this Wednesday through Saturday.

The program includes skill development sessions, an intersquad series between Stars and Stripes teams, etc. After the program ends on Aug. 10, USA Baseball will announce this year’s final 20-player Women’s National Team roster. That team will trainin Carrollton before competing in Mexico in the Women’s Pan Am Championships Aug. 18-25.

“Such a great kid,” said former Souhegan coach Bill Dod, who coached Greenwood, a catcher/outfielder/pitcher, throughout her varsity career at Souhegan. “She’s put in a lot of time. She wants to play at the highest level for women’s baseball and play on the national team.”

Next, congrats to Muchemore, who has committed to Post University, a highly regarded Division II school in Waterbury, Conn. She has been a key player in the Cardinals’ title run, and who can forget her huge 3-point heave at the buzzer ending the third quarter to put the Cards up 36-24 over Portsmouth in this past March’s Division I title game. That shot basically ended a mini Clippers run and pretty much sealed the deal for BG.

Muchemore reportedly had a good AAU season, on the heels of her outstanding junior year at BG, and Post women’s coach Jon Plefka wasted no time in having her in for a visit with an immediate offer.

“Beyond thankful to receive a college scholarship to play D2 basketball at Post University after an amazing visit,” Muchemore tweeted.

There will likely be more offers by various schools to be accepted for other Cardinal players as well, to be certain.

—- There was just one down moment in the recent Senior Legion tourney at Holman won by Nashua Post 124. That was the fact that the locals had to play on Monday after wrapping up the winner’s bracket title on Sunday night by beating Exeter.

There was no reason for Nashua to have to play Concord. The Post 124 squad should have had the day off, as a reward for its three wins through the winner’s bracket. That left Concord, Portsmouth and Exeter left with a loss each. So Portsmouth should have played Concord at 4:30 last Monday with the winner taking on Exeter – highest seed and advanced the furthest of the three – at 7 p.m. Then that winner would face Nashua the next day beginning at 4:30.

Legion head Rick Harvey said the coaches voted for the format that was used, because they didn’t want teams to face each other twice, etc. It’s a tournament, who cares if there’s a rematch?

Harvey said he didn’t like the idea but didn’t want to overrule the coaches. He should have. Nashua starting pitcher Joe Berman couldn’t get out of the first, needing to be helped off the mound due to the extreme heat.

He was later OK, but the baseball was horrible (27 combined runs in the first two innings) because while it meant something for Concord (having to stay alive), it meant only the difference between having only one or two chances at the title for Nashua. Bad move.

—- While we watch the punting battle in Foxborough, no such battle at the University of New Hampshire.

Remember how good a punter Drew Sanborn was for Bishop Guertin some five years ago? Well, the Amherst native is doing the same for the University of New Hampshire, and was named to the 2019 FCS Punter of the Year Preseason Watch List. Last year he averaged 40.2 yards a punt, and has seven 50-plus yard punts, including a 60-yarder. He pinned teams inside the 20 some 27 times a year ago. He certainly was a weapon for the Cardinals, his final season being 2014. This is his final season of college eligibility after he redhirted at UNH in 2015.

— We’ll get more into the soon departure of Nashua native B.J. Neverett from the Silver Knights organization after the team’s season ends in the playoffs, but the bottom line is the job of getting players and then coaching them was becoming more of a chore for Neverett, because often the players didn’t come as advertised (by the college coaches).

The surprise wasn’t that he was stepping down as manager but that he was also giving up the player personnel job as well. Neverett felt that would commit him to being around the team and wanted a clean break – and summer off.

Remember, he basically has been the face of the franchise since its inception. He’ll be missed.

Tom King may be reached at 594-1251,tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or@Telegraph _TomK.

Newsletter