SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — The Wheaton College (Mass.) softball team was nipped in eight innings, 1-0, in the second game of a twinbill by host Western New England University this afternoon at Golden Bears Softball Park in Springfield, Mass.
The Lyons drop to 9-5 on the season, while the Golden Bears improve to 7-9.
Both teams combined for just five hits and neither team collected a hit during the last three innings of regulation.
Junior second base Ella Molinari (Grafton, Mass.) led Wheaton with the game's only extra base hit – a double in three at-bats, while junior center fielder Gabby Reinbold (Sharon, Mass.) was also 1-3 with the Lyons' other hit. Senior starting pitcher Peyton Blankenheim-Brown (Rio Linda, Calif.) was outstanding and did not allow a runner past second base until the eighth inning. She gave up just three hits and no walks for one unearned run in seven and a third innings and struck out seven. Blankenheim-Brown falls to 5-2 on the year.
Senior center fielder Shea McDaniel (Seymour, Conn.) knocked in the only run of the second game and was 2-3 in the contest for Western New England. Senior shortstop Riley Kane (Prospect, Conn.) was 1-3. Sophomore starting pitcher Brianna Cardona (Stamford, Conn.) picked up the win to improve to 2-3 after hurling a two-hit shutout, while issuing three walks and striking out three in eight complete innings.
Wheaton put a runner on third base in each of the first two innings and boasted at least one base runner in the first four innings of the game.
Senior right fielder Amber Arcand (Millville, Mass.) worked a full-count walk to open the game, before Molinari smacked a one-out double to right field. Arcand hustled around the bases and threatened to score after rounding third base, but the relay home from the Golden Bears' right fielder to the second base was on target and in time to get the out at the plate and keep the Lyons off the board.
Wheaton junior third base Emma Boucher (Derry, N.H.) led off with a four-pitch walk in the top of the second and eventually advanced to third on a pair of infield outs. She was stranded there when Cardona induced a fly out to right field to end the inning.
Cardona was brilliant in the final four frames, setting all 12 Lyons down in order. Blankenheim-Brown was equally as good, retiring 10 WNEU batters in a row during the same stretch.
First year Alyssa Ferriouolo (North Haven, Conn.) was placed on second base to start the eighth inning for the Golden Bears as part of the international tie-breaker rule. Sophomore right fielder Ava Barnhart (Clifton Park, N.Y.) executed a sacrifice bunt to move Ferriouolo to third base with the potential winning run. McDaniel served a single to left field to break up Blankenheim-Brown's string of 10 straight batters set down and bring home the game-decider.
The Lyons return to action on Friday, April 3 when they head to Worcester, Mass. to open the New England Women's & Men's Athletic Conference slate against Worcester Polytechnic Institute at 3:00 p.m., while Western New England travels to Wenham, Mass. to play Gordon College in a Conference of New England doubleheader on March 30 at 2:30 p.m.
