NORTON, MA- The Wheaton College softball team swept Worcester
Polytechnic Institute (WPI), 1-0 and 5-1 on Friday at Clark Field
to clinch a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference
(NEWMAC) Tournament berth, as senior Andrea Bagley
(Foxboro, MA/Foxboro) and sophomore Lesley Warn
(Portland, ME/Deering) combined to allow one run over 14
innings.
Now 19-15 overall, the Lyons are 7-7 in the league thanks to a
six-game NEWMAC winning streak, while the Engineers are 15-18 and
4-10 while being eliminated from league postseason contention.
Junior Kristen Hunt's
(Milford, CT/Jonathan Law) solo homer leading off the
third inning of the opener stood up as the only run of the game, as
Warn struck out nine without walking a batter during a five-hit
shutout. Junior Rachel Merrick
(Methuen, MA/Central Catholic) finished 2-for-3 with a
double.
Sophomore Allie Hardy (West Townsend,
MA/Leominster) fanned five without a walk for WPI,
allowing the one run on seven hits. Five different Engineers had
one hit.
The Engineers put runners on second and third with no one out in
the opening inning, but Warn held the runners on a tapper back to
the circle before fanning the final two hitters. WPI then had a
runner at third with one out the following frame, but Warn got the
last two outs via strikeouts.
Hunt's fourth dinger of the season made it 1-0 in the third
before the Lyons had three hits in the fifth but came away empty.
In the sixth, Engineer senior Meg Foley (Belchertown,
MA/Belchertown) led off with a single, but with one down,
Lyon sophomore center fielder Amanda Poplaski
(North Reading, MA/North Reading) sprinted in to make a
running catch before doubling the runner off first.
With two on and two out in the home half, Hunt drilled a sinking
line drive to center, but WPI senior Kelly Johnson (Buxton,
ME/Bonny Eagle) made a sliding catch, trapping the ball
against her body as she rolled along the ground. The play kept it
1-0, but the Engineers went 1-2-3 in the seventh.
In game two, junior Katy Salka (Ayer,
MA/Ayer) was 4-for-4, Poplaski and freshman Brittany
Calarese (Norwood, MA/Norwood) had two hits apiece,
and classmate Amanda Drury
(Tolland, CT/Tolland) snapped a scoreless tie with a
two-out, two-run double in the fourth inning. Poplaski also swatted
her first collegiate home run. After walking the leadoff hitter in
the first, Warn retired the final nine batters she faced, including
two on strikes, and Bagley earned the win in her final appearance
on Clark Field with four frames of two-hit ball. She struck out
six.
For WPI, freshman Erin Beaulieu (Bethany,
CT/Amity) went 2-for-3, picking up both of her team's
hits, and sophomore Erin Flaherty (Stoughton,
MA/Stoughton) allowed three earned runs on 11 hits during
six innings, striking out six and walking two.
Drury's two-RBI two-bagger to the right field gap put Wheaton
ahead for good in the fourth inning before a WPI miscue made it
3-0, and Bagley and Warn combined on a no-hitter until Beaulieu's
clean single through the left side leading off the fifth. Merrick's
RBI single in the fifth put the hosts on top by four and, after the
Engineers scored their only run of the day on a two-out wild pitch
in the sixth, Poplaski countered in the home half with a drive that
cleared the fence in right center. After yielding another hit to
Beaulieu leading off the seventh, Bagley retired the final three
batters, with the last two being set down on strikes.
The Lyons compete their regular season slate tomorrow at Clark
University for a NEWMAC doubleheader that begins at 12:00 p.m. A
sweep would propel Wheaton into fifth place in the league.
