BOSTON, Mass. - #2N Saint Joseph's College (21-16) held off #3N Emmanuel College (23-17), 3-1, in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Softball Tournament second round contest at Daly Field on Thursday afternoon.
PLAYOFF IMPLICATIONS:
With the victory, Saint Joseph's advances to the third round of the tourney and faces off against 2nd/3rd round host Simmons University roughly 30 minutes after the opening triumph.
Emmanuel returns to action on Saturday with an elimination game versus #1S Johnson & Wales University in Providence, start time TBD.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
As it played out, the Monks produced the offense they required to win in the bottom of the first, when the Royal Blue plated a pair off four hits. St. Joe's started the day with four consecutive singles, with the final knock – a Sylvia Foley (Scarborough, Maine) base hit up the middle – sending freshmen Hannah Gosselin (Biddeford, Maine) and Sadie Tirrell (Naples, Maine) across the plate.
Saint Joseph's tacked on an insurance run in the fourth, when sophomore catcher Abby Carpenter (Bath, Maine) doubled with one out and later scored on a Taylor Owen (Wakefield, Mass.) groundout.
SJC senior starting pitcher Meredith Pence (Remington, Va.) cruised through the first six innings but hit a jam in the seventh, when the Saints loaded the bases with a single and a pair of walks with nobody out. Head Coach Jamie Smyth '92 opted to lift Pence in favor of senior Emily Eagleston (Reading, Mass.), who allowed a run on a sac fly but escaped further trouble with a harmless popup to cap the victory.
IN THE CIRCLE:
Pence improved to 12-3 on the season after allowing one run on four hits and six walks with six strikeouts over six innings while Eagleston earned her second save of the season with a perfect seventh inning of work.
Emmanuel starter Tianna Dawe suffered the loss and falls to 13-15 on the season after giving up two runs on four hits without recording an out in the first inning. Mackenzie Briggs finished the game with six innings of one-run, two-hit softball while fanning a pair.
AT THE BAT:
The teams combined to notch just 10 hits, including six by the Monks, with no repeat-hitters in the tourney tilt. Foley led the SJC offense with the two-run single in the first and Carpenter produced the only extra-base hit, the double in the fourth, in the contest.
The Saints stranded 11 baserunners and swiped four bases in the setback.
