Mitchell Softball Advances With Two Wins at NECC Championship

Game 2 - Mitchell College 4, Elms College 0

BOSTON, Mass. - The Mitchell College softball team won two games on Saturday and have put themselves in the best possible situation to win the championship going into the final day of play.  Mitchell (16-16-1) will face the winner of the game at 11:00 am on Sunday, May 3 between Lesley University and Daniel Webster College.  In game two of the tournament, freshman shortstop Stacey Suplicki (New London, Conn./Saint Bernard) went 3-for-3 with two RBIs as she led the Mariners over the #2 seed Elms College Blazers with a 4-0 shutout victory. 

Mariners freshman hurler Kristina Torres (Groton, Conn./Fitch) blanked Elms through seven innings, giving up four hits and walking two while striking out nine batters.  Torres improved to 8-9 on the season with the victory.

The Mariners scored in the third inning on an RBI single by Nikki Hoxie (Winsted, Conn./The Gilbert School).  Hoxie would reach third base with just one out, but Elms' Ani Ramsdell (Gardner, Mass./Gardner) struck out the next two batters to escape the jam. 

The score remained 1-0 through the next three innings until Mitchell opened up their lead with a three-run top of the seventh inning.  Mariners leadoff hitter Lindsey Donelin (Niantic, Conn./Stonington) beat out a groundball to third for an infield single, stole second, advanced to third base on a passed ball and then scored on a wild pitch to put her team up 2-0.  Suplicki did her damage in this inning with a two-out two-RBI double down the left field line to give Mitchell breathing room going into the bottom of the seventh. 

Elms leading hitters were Alison McBride (East Providence, R.I./East Providence) who had two hits and Kerrie Bowden (Chicopee, Mass./Chicopee Comprehensive) and Kelly Callahan (Monson, Mass./Monson) who each tallied a hit.

Game 4 - Daniel Webster 2, Mitchell College 3 (F - 8 INN)

BOSTON, Mass. - The lone 1-0 teams from day one of the NECC softball tournament went into a tie-breaker scenario in the eighth inning and despite Daniel Webster gaining a one-run advantage in the top of the eighth, Mitchell came right back to score two runs in the bottom half of the frame to earn a dramatic victory.

Tied up 1-1 in the top of the eighth, Daniel Webster's Tiana Winter (New Ipswich, N.H./Mascenic) singled to bring in Amanda Wilson (Merrimack, N.H./Merrimack) who had been placed on second base to start the inning. 

With the 2-1 deficit, the Mariners wasted no time tying the score on a triple to right centerfield by Liz Roy (Jewett City, Conn./Griswold) that drove in Donelin.  The next batter, Sara Krolikowski (Bristol, Conn./Bristol Eastern), walked and forced a rundown as she took off towards second base.  Roy raced towards home and scored as the catcher bobbled the throw home to give Mitchell the walk-off victory. 

Mitchell's Torres in her second game of the day on the mound, pitched eight innings to earn her second win of the day.  Eagles' pitcher Langlois added 12 more strikeouts to her total but took the loss.