BEVERLY, Mass. – The Endicott softball team swept Curry in a pair of conference games (2-1, 11-14) on Saturday afternoon.
GAME ONE: Endicott 2, Curry 1
WP (2-1): Jaylin Couto (Taunton, Mass.) – 7 IP, 8 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 14 K
LP (4-4): Jillian Rogers (East Freetown, Mass.) – 6.2 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 8 K
Caitlyn Romero (Southport, Conn.) provided the heroics for the Gulls with a walk-off double to right center with two outs in the bottom of the seventh.
Romero laced a 2-2 fastball the other way into the gap plating Chloe Shapleigh (Lynnfield, Mass.) from second base to send Endicott's bench into a frenzy.
Shapleigh worked a two-out walk and advanced to second on a wild pitch before Romero's walk-off knock.
Curry nearly took the lead in the bottom of the sixth, but Gulls' center fielder Christina Nowicki (Chelsea, Mass.) made a Gold Glove-caliber diving play on a sinking liner to take away two potential runs from the Colonels.
In the third, Shapleigh tied up the game at 1-1 with a solo blast off the rocks in dead center for her fourth homer of the season.
Defense also was on display in the first inning as the Gulls used a relay from Nowicki and shortstop Abby McClaflin (Easthampton, Mass.) to eventually gun down the game's would-be first run at home with a clean tag by catcher Dani Lear (Groveland, Mass.).
GAME TWO: Endicott 11, Curry 4
WP (3-1): Kristen Beebe (Brentwood, N.H.) – 3.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K
LP (3-3): Caitlyn Wood (Saugus, Mass.) – 3 IP, 8 H, 7 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 4 K
The Gulls put up crooked numbers in the first (5) and fifth (4) to secure the conference sweep.
In the first, Hadley Marchand (Andover, Conn.) cranked a three-run shot to jumpstart Endicott in the opening frame.
Remington Casida (Coventry, Conn.) knocked in another run with a single to center before the Gulls scored their fifth and final run on an error.
Shapleigh added a solo bomb down the right field line in the second (6-2) before Mia Mitchell (Medford, Mass.) connected for an RBI single in the third (7-2).
Mitchell (1B), Shapleigh (1B), and Marchand (SF) also drove in solo runs in the fifth following a Paige Berdos' (Plainville, Mass.) RBI double that started the four-run frame.
BEYOND THE BOX SCORES
- Endicott is 51-4-1 all-time against Curry.
- The Gulls have won 11 straight in the series.
- Couto struck out a career-high 14 batters (previous was 13).
- Her 14 strikeouts are tied for fourth all-time in program history.
- Shapleigh went 3-for-4 with three runs scored, two homers, three RBI, and four walks in the sweep.
WHAT'S NEXT
Endicott (9-2, 2-0 CCC) hosts Brandeis on Wednesday, April 3 at 3/5 PM. Curry (9-7, 0-2 CCC) welcomes Eastern Nazarene to its campus on Tuesday, April 2 at 3/5 PM.
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(Photo Credit - Kayleigh Halasz '24)
