SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - Freshman
Trish Breault (Millville, Mass.) singled home the only run of the
game in the bottom of the ninth inning Wednesday afternoon and
fourth-seeded Western New England College advanced past
fifth-seeded Plymouth State University, 1-0, in the first round of
the ECAC New England Tournament.
The Golden Bears (29-14) advance to this weekend's
double-elimination tournament, which will be played at top-seeded
Brandeis University. Plymouth State completes one of the top
seasons in school history with a 25-15 overall record.
The game was a superb pitching duel between PSU sophomore
Kat Roland (Norton, Mass.), who was named to the
Little East Conference All-Star team earlier in the day, and WNEC
junior Laura Bower (Hudson, Mass.), who was named to the All-New
England Region team on Tuesday. Roland retired the first 11
batters she faced, and surrendered only four hits and no walks
through the first eight innings while striking out 12. Bower
retired 13 Panthers in a row in the middle innings, matched her
career high with 15 strikeouts, and allowed just five base runners
through eight innings on two hits, a walk and two batters hit by a
pitch.
The Panthers started the top of the eighth and ninth innings with a
runner on second base (due to the extra-inning rule) but couldn't
bring either one around to score. The Golden Bears had the
same luxury in their half of the innings and came up empty in the
bottom of the eighth, but sophomore Lauren Arsenault (Fitchburg,
Mass.) sacrificed the runner to third to start the bottom of the
ninth and Breault delivered the game-winning hit with a single to
left field. Bower collected her 20th win of the season,
improving to 20-8.
Freshman Melissa Caiazzo (Portland, Maine) and
junior Heather Bartolo (Derry, N.H.) each reached
base twice and accounted for PSU's only two hits on the day.
Caiazzo was stranded at second base after a single in the second
inning, and broke Bower's streak of retiring 13 straight Panthers
by drawing a walk in the seventh inning. Bartolo was stranded at
second after reaching on a hit-by-pitch in the third, and she
singled to put runners at the corners with one out in the eighth
inning, but Bowers struck out the next two batters to end the
threat.
The 25 wins for PSU this spring is the second-most in a season in
school history, and marks a 12-game improvement over last year. The
Panthers were making their fifth ECAC post-season appearance and
first since 2003.
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