STANDISH, ME – Saint Joseph's (22-6, 13-3 GNAC) won both ends of a Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) doubleheader against Suffolk University (6-20, 1-9 GNAC) at Richard W. Bailey Field on Saturday afternoon. Junior center fielder Emily Leverone (Hampton, NH) went 3-6 with three runs, two homers and five RBI in the sweep.
GAME ONE
St. Joe's opened up the scoring in the opener with three runs off three hits in the bottom of the second. Lindsay Moore '14 (Barrington, NH) drove in Alyssa Dunn '11 (Standish, ME) on an infield miscue and Maria Labbe '12 (Lewiston, ME) plated Moore and Heather Tripp '13 (Lovell, ME) with a double down the left field line to make it a 3-0 game after two innings.
Freshman designated hitter Jill Howard (Rochester, NH) led off the bottom of the third with a single and was lifted in favor of pinch runner Caitlin Schrum '12 (Littleton, NH), who scored the Monks' fourth run of the game on a Tripp single.
Suffolk went on to score its only run of the opener in the top of the fourth when Lindsey Rogers '13 (Gloucester, MA) doubled and scampered home on a Mandi Thornton '13 (Methuen, MA) single.
The Monks increased their cushion to 7-1 when Labbe smacked a three-run double in the fifth and proceeded to collect a mercy-rule win with two runs in the bottom of the sixth. Leverone belted a solo home run and Labbe singled home Howard close out the 9-1 victory.
Labbe went 3-4 with two doubles and tied the Monks' single-game record with six RBI in the victory. Howard was 3-4 with two runs and Tripp went 2-3 with a run and an RBI.
SJC starting pitcher Maddie Kluna '12 (Standish, ME), now 9-2 on the year, allowed one run off six hits and fanned 10 batters in six innings. The junior hurler became the fifth pitcher in program history to reach the 200-strikeout plateau with her ninth K of the afternoon. Kluna joins Kellee Murphy '97 (436 K's), Dani Waterman '94 (363), Sarah Webster '02 (303) and teammate Kiera Walsh '11 (Benton, ME) (251) in the exclusive club.
Suffolk starter Liz Galvin '12 (Medway, MA) fell to 2-9 on the year after allowing nine runs (six earned) off 11 hits and a walk.
GAME TWO
Right fielder Danyelle Shufelt '13 (Sutton, VT) singled and later scored on a Rams infield error in the bottom of the first to lift the Royal Blue to an early 1-0 edge. Saint Joseph's went on to score four runs, two on a Leverone double, in the third to take a 5-0 advantage. Dunn plated a run with a groundout and Cynthia Wescott '12 (Westbrook, ME) knocked in the Monks' fifth run of the game with a double to deep center.
Leverone smacked her second tater of the day and sixth of the year, a two-run blast to right-center, to stake the Monks to a 7-0 lead after four frames.
Suffolk finally got on the board in the top of the fifth when Cali Loura '12 (Farmington, CT) plated Galvin with a single to left field. The Rams threatened with three runs in the top of the sixth but would get no closer to the lead as Walsh, the Monks' game-two starter, induced three harmless groundouts in the top of the seventh to clinch the SJC sweep.
For the Monks, Leverone was 2-3 with two runs, a double, a home run and four RBI and Connie Grovo '14 (Limington, ME) went 2-3 with two runs scored. Shufelt scored twice and added two hits in four plate appearances and Moore posted a 2-3 effort with a run scored on the afternoon.
Walsh improved to 7-1 on the year after allowing four runs (three earned) off five hits with five K's in seven innings. Suffolk starter Samantha McGilvray '14 (Brighton, MA) allowed six earned runs off 11 hits and three walks and is now 3-10 on the season with the loss.
