Posted: Apr 01, 2010
Box Score - Game Two
BEVERLY, Mass. – Following a 15-1 throttling in game one, the Endicott College softball team’s bats went silent in game two as Anna Maria edged the Gulls, 1-0, in the nightcap of a The Commonwealth Coast Conference doubleheader in Beverly, Mass. The Gulls remain at .500 this season at 8-8 and 3-3 in the TCCC while Anna Maria improves to 7-15 overall and 3-5 in league play.
In game one of the double-header, Endicott plated seven runs in the opening inning as the first 10 batters to come to bat reached base safely. In the inning, \#Ashley Wright\# (Merrimack, N.H.) blasted her second homerun of the season to left centerfield, scoring \#Sarah Spaziano\# (Norton, Mass.). The Gulls would score seven runs on four hits in the frame.
The Blue and Green scored a run each in the second and third inning, including Wright’s second homerun of the day in the second inning, before bursting out with six more runs in the bottom of the fourth. The Gulls loaded the bases and scored a pair of runs on back-to-back RBI singles from \#Jocelyn Russo\# (Middletown, Conn.) and \#Katherine McGann\# (Topsfield, Mass.) before Endicott’s \#Nicole Devlin\# (Dudley, Mass.) promptly cleared the bases two pitches later as the freshman belted her first career homerun, a grand slam.
Anna Maria finally got on the board in the top half of the fifth as Sarah Boyda (Oxford, Mass.) singled through the left side of the infield to make it a 15-1 game. \#Jenna Bortolotti\# (Milton, Mass.) was unfazed, however, as she retired the next two batters she faced by inducing a pop out and ending the game with a strikeout.
Seven different Gulls had an RBI while eight others recorded a hit in the win, while McGann, \#Merry MacDonald\# (Braintree, Mass.) and \#Ashley Wright\# each had multi-hit games for Endicott. Wright also added three RBI on her two homeruns while \#Nicole Devlin\# drove in all four of her runs on one swing of the bat. \#Jenna Bortolotti\# (2-5) gave up only two hits and one unearned run while striking out seven in five innings of work.
Anna Maria only mustered two hits in the game from Boyda and Becky Mercurio (Worcester, Mass.) while Boyda recorded the team’s only RBI. Holly Renna (Charlton, Mass.) suffered the setback and fell to 3-9 on the season while only throwing 1.1 innings and giving up five hits and eight runs (five earned).
Game two was a much different story as both teams went scoreless through the first six innings of play. Both pitchers kept the other team’s bats silent until Anna Maria’s Allyssa Boykin (Mendon, Mass.) broke the tie as she hit a solo homerun in the top of the seventh to give the AMCATS a 1-0 lead. AMC eventually loaded the bases as Dominique Marchand (Mendon, Mass.) singled, Becky Mercurio doubled, and Sarah Boyda was intentionally walked. Endicott’s \#Kayla Carignan\# (Laconia, N.H.) worked out of the jam however by inducing a pop out to third base by Tabitha Ruggeri (Sturbridge, Mass.).
In the Gulls’ half of the seventh, \#Sarah Spaziano\# led off the inning with a single in the hole and was sacrificed over to second by \#Hayley Hovhanessian\# (Farmington, Conn.). Devlin pinch hit and fouled out to the third baseman but \#Kelly Tenney\# (Sandy Hook, Conn.) drew a two-out walk to extend the inning. On ball four, the ball slipped past catcher Sarah Boyda which allowed Spaziano and Tenney to advance into scoring position. Unfortunately, Endicott’s rally came up short as \#Byrne Katz\# (Trumbull, Conn.) grounded back to the pitcher to end the game.
The Gulls were only able to grab five hits off Holly Renna including doubles from MacDonald and \#Ashley Wright\#. \#Kayla Carignan\# (6-3) suffered the setback for the Gulls despite going seven innings giving up one earned run while scattering seven hits.
Anna Maria was led by Boykin’s solo shot and 2-for-3 performances from Sarah Boyda and Becky Mercurio. Holly Renna rebounded from a tough start in game one to improve to 4-9, while going seven innings and giving up only five hits.
The Blue and Green return to action when they host Eastern Nazarene College at 3:00 p.m. on Friday afternoon. Anna Maria will take on Wentworth next Thursday at 3:30 p.m. in Boston, Mass.
