NORTON, Mass. — First year designated player Taylor Barry (Hadley, Mass.) drove in a career-high four runs and senior starting pitcher Sofia Knopf (Norton, Mass.) tossed a two-hit shutout to lead the Wheaton College (Mass.) softball team to an 8-0 victory over visiting Smith College this afternoon in the first game of a New England Women's & Men's Athletic Conference doubleheader at Clark Softball Field on the Wheaton campus in Norton, Mass. The game was halted after five innings of play, due to the NCAA's eight-run mercy rule.
The Lyons improve to 9-9 overall and a perfect 3-0 in league play, while the Pioneers drop to 6-6-1 and 0-1.
Wheaton pounded out 10 hits for the game and scored four runs in the opening frame, before scoring twice in the second to take a 6-0 lead. The Lyons enacted the mercy rule with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth.
Barry was 3-3 with a double and two runs scored at the plate for Wheaton, while Knopf struck out five and issued a pair of walks in five complete innings from the circle to improve to 5-4 on the season with her third shutout of the year. Knopf allowed just one base runner as far as second base for the game. First year second base Ella Molinari (Grafton, Mass.) was 3-3 with a triple, a run batted in and a pair of runs scored and senior shortstop Lindsey Oliveira (Westport, Mass.) knocked in a run and scored a run with a 2-3 effort. Senior third base Bryanna Agan (Averill Park, N.Y.) contributed going 1-2 with a triple and an RBI.
Junior center fielder Taylor Ang (San Diego, Calif.) led the Smith bats, going 1-1 with a walk, while junior shortstop Piper Corey (Phoenix, Ariz.) was 1-2. Sophomore starting pitcher Emilie Doty (Arlington, Va.) suffered the loss to drop to 4-3 after giving up six runs (two earned) on six hits to go with a pair of strikeouts.
The first four batters all reached and all scored to open the bottom of the first for the Lyons. Junior left fielder Juliette Zito (Woodbridge, Conn.) reached on an error and came around to score the first run of the game on a triple to right center off the bat of Molinari. Barry followed with an RBI single to right center and scored when Oliveira followed with a single through the left side that eluded the left fielder, allowing Barry to score and Oliveira to advance to third. Two outs later, Agan delivered the second triple of the frame, down the right field line, to plate Oliveira with the fourth run.
Wheaton picked up where it left off in the second, crossing the plate twice to increase its lead to 6-0. Junior right fielder Jillian Rohon (Southington, Conn.) reached on an error to open the frame, before Molinari stung a single up the middle and advanced to second on the throw to put both runners in scoring position for Barry. The rookie came through with a booming double to left field to knock in both runners with the fifth and sixth runs.
The Lyons put two more runs on the board in the fourth to essentially decide the contest. Zito ripped a single to center field and later scored on a run-scoring single from Barry. Oliveira gave Wheaton its eighth run when she laced a single up the middle to bring Barry around to score to make it 8-0. Knopf set the Pioneers down in order in the fifth to end the contest.
