Posted: Apr 03, 2012
BEVERLY, Mass. – Endicott and Wheaton competed in an afternoon doubleheader at the Gulls Softball Stadium on Tuesday with each team earning a win. The Gulls are now 10-6 (5-1 CCC) on the season and will visit conference rival Gordon tomorrow at 3:00 pm in Wenham. Wheaton (12-12, 5-1 NEWMAC) continues their league schedule with two home games against MIT on Friday starting at 3:00 pm.
Game One: Endicott 5, Wheaton 4
Box Score
With the score knotted at four runs apiece in the bottom of the seventh, Endicott junior captain Byrne Katz (Trumbull, Conn.) delivered with a fly ball to right field that dropped in for a base hit to bring home the game-winning run in freshman Amanda Campbell (Billerica, Mass.). Campbell was pinch-running for junior Colleen Martin (Cape Elizabeth, Maine) who was hit by a pitch and had to leave the game.
Endicott’s started off the game with a 3-0 lead after scoring runs in the first, second, and fourth innings on three sacrifice flies, two by junior Jocelyn Russo (Middletown, Conn.) and another by sophomore Kelley Michael (Ipswich, Mass.).
Wheaton stormed back in a big way in the top of the fifth after senior Amanda Poplaski (North Reading, Mass.) singled to reach base and stole second, then junior Amanda Drury (Tolland, Conn.) walked to put two runners on. The next batter, sophomore shortstop Jenna Rocha (Rehoboth, Mass.) cracked a three-run homerun to left field to even the score at 3-3. Later in the inning, an RBI hit up the middle by Megan Roy (North Dighton, Mass.) put the Lyons ahead for the first time in the game.
In the bottom of the sixth, Gulls junior captain Nicole Devlin (Dudley, Mass.) doubled to deep center and then scored on an RBI single to left center by Krista Fales (Melrose, Mass.) to tie the game setting up Katz’ walk-off hit.
In the circle, Endicott sophomore Danielle LaRocque (Averill Park, N.Y.) came on in relief to pitch three innings of no-run softball with two strikeouts and earned the win (3-1). Freshman Meg Donegan (Atkinson, N.H.) started the game and went four innings, allowing all four earned runs but struck out five batters in the process.
For Wheaton, freshman Noelle Christmas (Plymouth, Mass.) suffered the loss (4-3) after going 6 2/3 innings, allowing five runs on 10 hits with no walks while punching out two.
Game Two: Endicott 1, Wheaton 7
Box Score
Endicott’s offense struggled in game two, scattering seven hits over seven innings while scoring just one run in the bottom of the first on an error by the Wheaton first baseman that allowed Russo to score all the way from first on a sacrifice bunt play.
The Lyons got big games out of Rocha (3-for-4, three runs), Christmas (3-of-3, three runs, RBI) and both sophomore Ashley Brillon (Attleboro, Mass.) and Roy who had two RBIs each.
Wheaton senior Valeria Tratner (Forest Hills, N.Y.) also recorded a RBI single to right center in the seventh inning.
In the circle, Lyons sophomore hurler Allison Baker (Orange, Conn.) pitched seven strong innings for the complete game victory (8-9). She struck out just one batter but scatter seven hits throughout the game. LaRocque started the game for the Gulls and took the loss to drop to 3-2 on the season.
