Softball Downs Mitchell College, 5-0 to Advance in 2011 NECC Championship Tournament
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Mitchell | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 |
|
Elms | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | X | 5 | 6 | 0 |
BOSTON, Mass. – Elms College junior shortstop Jenna Lipscomb (Cambridge, Mass.) went 2 for 3 with a pair of RBI to help lead the second-seeded Blazers to a 5-0 win over No. 3 Mitchell College in Friday afternoon's New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) Championship tournament semifinal contest at Clark Field on the campus of UMass-Boston.
With the win, Elms (21-12 overall) will advance to play No. 1 Lesley University (27-6 overall) at 4:00 p.m. on Friday in its second semifinal game of the afternoon. The top-seeded Lynx posted an 8-0 win over No. 5 Newbury College (10-23 overall) to secure its spot in this afternoon's 4:00 p.m. contest. Mitchell and Newbury will square off in an elimination game at 2:00 p.m.
Elms took an early lead in the bottom of the first when senior right fielder Alison McBride (East Providence, R.I.) cracked a leadoff single to left field and raced to third on a two-base Mitchell miscue before scoring when Lipscomb grounded out to shortstop to give the Blazers a 1-0 edge.
In the bottom of the third frame, Lipscomb and sophomore third baseman Rachel Butt (Agawam, Mass.) delivered back-to-back RBI singles to extend Elms' advantage to 3-0.
Following a pair of scoreless stanzas, the Blazers put across two more runs when Butt, who reached on an error, and sophomore catcher Sarah Buckley (Wilbraham, Mass.) who drilled a base hit, both scored on Mariners miscues to give Elms a 5-0 advantage.
Mitchell's Jen Bordonaro (Winsted, Conn.) was hit by a pitch to start the game and advanced all the way to third in the top of the first inning, but Elms' senior pitcher Destinee Meeker (Bantam, Conn.) forced a pair of groundouts to end the scoring threat and did not allow another runner to advance past first base as Meeker collected her 12th victory of the season (12-6).
Meeker scattered just three hits and struck out five, while Marissa Thomas (New London, Conn.) suffered the loss for Mitchell and moves to 11-8 on the season.
