DUDLEY, Mass. – Sophomore
Meghan Sears (Tewksbury, Mass.) belted a walk-off home run in game one and classmate
Christina Drake (Lebanon, N.H.) hit a pair of home runs in game two as the Nichols College softball team swept a Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) doubleheader from Gordon College Wednesday afternoon at the Nichols Softball Field.
Sophomore
Christina Barrows (Carver, Mass.) and freshman
Kasey Ayer (Niantic, Conn.) each drove in a pair of runs as the Bison (11-17, 7-9 CCC) have won five of their last six games. Sears, meanwhile, tossed six innings of two-hit ball in the nightcap to earn her first win this season.
Game one remained scoreless into the sixth, when the Bison pushed across a pair of runs to take a 2-0 lead. Freshman
Courtney Manarky (Amston, Conn.) drew a leadoff walk and went to third on a bunt single from freshman
Kendall Meehan (Danvers, Mass.). With Ayer at the plate, Meehan broke for second and an errand throw from the Gordon catcher allowed Manarky to scamper in from third with the game's first run. Ayer proceeded to lift a sac fly to centerfield that plated Meehan.
A pair of errors in top of the seventh gave Gordon runners at first and second with no outs. A fielder's choice off the bat of junior Alyssa Unumb (Bedford, Mass.) allowed freshman Sarah Ryder (Telford, Pa.) to score from third, and a double by senior Rachel Ryder (Telford, Pa.) brought in junior Hope Zigterman (Villa Park, Ill.) with the tying run.
Sears led off the Nichols half of the seventh with a home run over the right field wall to give junior
Haley Fountain (Warren, Mass.) her eighth win of the season. She gave up seven hits and two runs (one earned) in seven innings of work. She did not walk a batter and struck out one.
Freshman Emily Kline's (Park Ridge, N.J.) knocked a three-run home run in the first inning of game two to put the Fighting Scots (7-22, 4-12 CCC) ahead 3-0 (all runs were unearned). The Bison put up a '4' spot in their half of the frame as an RBI single from Fountain was followed by a three-run blast from Drake over the left-center field fence.
Meehan's RBI single in the second pushed the lead to 5-3 before a solo home run from Drake and a two-run double from Barrows extended the Nichols lead to 8-3 after four. Ayer's sac fly in the fourth made it 9-3. Junior Marissa Meenan (Wayne, Pa.) singled in a run and later scored in the fifth to close the scoring.
Kline took the loss in the opener as she allowed four hits and three runs (two earned) with four walks and four strikeouts. Freshman Abigail Knowton (Deer Isle, Maine) was tagged for 12 hits and nine runs (eight earned) in 5.1 innings in game two as she took the loss.
Nichols has earned the No. 7 seed in the CCC Tournament and will head to either No. 6 seed UNE or Roger Williams on Saturday for a play-in game. No. 8 Gordon will head to No. 5 UNE/Roger Williams Saturday in the other play-in game.
