SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – The seventh-seeded Nichols College softball team fell to third-seeded Curry, 6-5, in eight innings Tuesday afternoon in the The Commonwealth Coast Conference Tournament. The Bison suffer their first loss in the double-elimination tournament and will face fourth-seeded Roger Williams Thursday in a 2:30 p.m. game hosted by Gordon College.
Nichols (16-23) held a 5-2 lead in the middle of the seventh inning, but a three-run Curry seventh knotted the game and forced the extra session. The Bison had runners on the corners with two outs in the top of the eighth, but Colonels’ reliever Janelle Mayo struck out the final batter to get out of the inning unscathed.
Kristen Jackman led off the bottom of the eighth with a double to center, and after a groundout, the Colonels got another aboard via an infield error before Alysia DiMuzio pushed Jackman across with an RBI single to right.
Nichols took a 1-0 lead in the first on an RBI single from Ashley Robidoux (Milford, Mass.), but the Colonels responded in the bottom half of the inning to score two runs on three hits and an error.
Three Bison hits in the third produced a run to knot the game, as Val Calcagni (Rocky Hill, Conn.) drove in Lauren Correia (Seekonk, Mass.), who led off the inning with a single.
Lindsay Hassett (Oxford, Mass.) went the distance for the Bison, allowing six runs (four earned) on 14 hits while fanning eight. Mayo earned the win in relief to improve to 10-2 on the year. Starter Amanda Peters was tagged for five runs on 13 hits while striking out three in the first seven innings.
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