Softball Splits Doubleheader with Wheaton

Game One Box Score | Game Two Box Score

NORTON, Mass. -- The Bridgewater State College softball team split a doubleheader with Wheaton College this afternoon at Clark Field in Norton.

Sophomore Kristen Hunt's (Milford, CT) solo home run snapped a fifth-inning tie and pushed Wheaton to a 9-4 victory against the visiting Bears in the opener.  The Bears downed the Lyons in the nightcap, 10-2, in six innings to earn the split.  Wheaton is now 9-7, while Bridgewater State moved to 11-3.
 
Senior Stacey Kelleher's (Brockton, MA) two-out RBI double in the first inning put the Lyons on top in the first contest before classmate Brady Benton (Concord, NH) stole home as part of a two-run third that made it 3-0.
 
After putting runners on second and third with one out in each of the first and third frames but coming away empty, the Bears battled back to tie the contest. Junior Meghan Noyes (Stoughton, MA) led off the fourth with a solo home run, and seniors Allie LeBlanc (Somerset, MA) and Rachael Sprague (Duxbury, MA) notched consecutive run-scoring hits with two down in the fifth. 
 
Hunt, however, slammed a pitch toward right center for her first long ball of the year leading off the bottom of the fifth, giving the Lyons a 4-3 edge, and the hosts tacked on five runs on three hits the next inning. Hunt laced a two-run double in the frame, while Kelleher and sophomores Nicole DeRosa (Greenwich, CT) and Marissa Hobocan (Shelton, CT) each drove in a run.
 
Hunt finished the contest a triple shy of the cycle, going 3-for-4 with three runs and three RBI. Kelleher plated a pair of runs, Benton swiped two bases, freshman Amanda Poplaski (North Reading, MA) scored twice, and classmate Valerie Tratner (Forest Hills, NY) drew two bases on balls. Freshman righty Lesley Warn (Portland, ME) went the distance for the win, allowing four earned runs on seven hits with three strikeouts.
 
Bear sophomore Tracey Sanko (Windsor, CT) was 2-for-2 with two runs, two walks and two steals, while classmate Heather McPherson (Mansfield, MA) added two hits. Senior Alyssa Verronneau (Acushnet, MA) suffered the loss, yielding three earned runs in five-plus innings.
 
Bridgewater State jumped out quickly in game two, as an error and sophomore Bridget Engwer's (Wrentham, MA) RBI single made it 2-0 in the second before LeBlanc hit a two-run homer in the third. Wheaton threatened in the third, but a two-out, based-loaded opportunity went unanswered.
 
The visitors added six runs on five hits in the sixth inning, with Sprague's three-run home run the big blow. Wheaton received a run-scoring single from senior Lynn Cotto (Brookfield, CT) and an RBI groundout by freshman Mary Fay (Stoughton, MA) in the bottom of the frame.
 
Cotto and Hunt each went 2-for-3 in game two, while junior Andrea Bagley (Foxboro, MA) yielded five earned runs in six innings to receive the loss.
 
Sprague led the Bears by going 3-for-4 with three RBI and two runs, LeBlanc was 2-for-4 with three RBI and two runs, and Engwer finished 2-for-3 with two RBI. Noyes and freshman Michaela Ferreira (Fall River, MA) each added two hits.

Junior Jamie Ducinski (Duxbury, MA) did not allow an earned run during a six-inning, complete-game effort.  Ducinski scattered eight hits, walked two and struck out four as she improved to 2-0 on the season.