DUDLEY, Mass. (April 21) – The Nichols College softball team defeated Western New England College, 5-4, in 11 innings of the first game of a The Commonwealth Coast Conference twinbill Wednesday afternoon before the two teams played to a 2-2 tie in the nightcap called due to darkness after six innings. Nichols improves to 15-20-1 overall and 11-10-1 in TCCC games, while the Golden Bears dip to 19-17-1 overall and 14-7-1 in conference action.
A two-out, two-run single from senior first baseman Valeri Calcagni (Rocky Hill, Conn.) was a fitting end for the first game on the Bison’s senior day. Trailing by one in the frame, and runners on first and second, classmate Loren Rozanski (Plainville, Conn.) bunted the runners over to set them up for Calcani’s winning hit.
Nichols had taken a 1-0 lead in the third inning when Chelsea Correia (Seekonk, Mass.) led off the inning by getting hit by a pitch, advanced on a wild pitch and came around to score on an Ashley Robidoux (Milford, Mass.) single.
Jeana Longo led off the WNEC fifth with a double, and two outs later, Kate Post drove her and Sarah Lempicki, who singled, across with a single for a 2-1 lead.
Nichols got its run back in the bottom of the seventh on a Shannon Weeks (Greenfield, Mass.) RBI single that scored leadoff batter Lauren Correia (Seekonk, Mass.).
A Lempicki double in the 10th scored the Golden Bears’ runner, but Nichols stranded runners at first and second and reliever Lindsay Hassett (Oxford, Mass.) fanned the final batter to end the inning. A Chelsea Correia sac fly knotted the game in the bottom of the frame and sent the teams to the 11th where Longo doubled again to score Gauvin, who started the inning on second.
Hassett earned the win in relief for the Bison, coming on in the 7th to strike out four and allow two runs on two hits in 4.2 innings. Starter Kara Buckley (Nashua, N.H.) allowed two runs on seven hits through 6.1 innings. Meagan Riemann went the first five for WNEC, allowing one run on six hits before bowing out to Rachelle Fecteau, who took the loss with four runs (three earned) on four hits in the final 5.2 frames.
In the second game, Nichols took a 1-0 lead in the third on a bases-loaded walk by Chelsea Correia, after the Bison led off the inning with three-straight singles. A two-out, two-run triple from Gauvin pushed the visitors ahead by one in the fourth, but Correia came through again in the fifth for the Bison with her fourth home run of the season to knot the game before it was called due to darkness after a complete sixth inning.
Per NCAA legislation, a regulation tie game shall be declared by the plate umpire if the score is tied when the game must be called after five or more equal innings.
Nichols is back in action on Saturday in a 6 p.m. TCCC game at Eastern Nazarene. The game was originally scheduled for 1 p.m. Western New England hosts Elms Thursday in a 4 p.m. single non-conference game.
Box Scores -- available 4/22