Blue Softball Splits with WPI to Finish Season

WORCESTER, Mass. - Sophomore Lauren Young (Fresno, Calif.) helped guide Wellesley College softball to a game one win as the Blue split a pair of New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) games with WPI in the regular season finale on Saturday at Rooftop Fields Complex.

Young pitched a complete game shutout in game one for the Blue (9-22-1 Overall, 5-11 NEWMAC), striking out four while only allowing five hits over seven innings of work.

First year Meg Sherwood (Norfolk, Mass.) had two triples and two RBIs for the Engineers (20-18 Overall, 11-7 NEWMAC) and grad student Lindsay Ambrosino (Chelmsford, Mass.) had three runs on three hits in game two.

Game 1 | Wellesley 5, WPI 0 | Final

Young got the offense started for the Blue with an RBI single up the middle in the top of the second. 

The Blue added three more runs in the top of the third. Junior Julz Vargas (Los Angeles, Calif.), who hit two for three in the game, started the scoring by coming home on an error. Sophomore Charis Chung (San Gabriel, Calif.) and senior Ingrid Hsu (San Ramon, Calif.) then executed a well timed double steal to bring home Hsu. The double steal worked again later in the innings when Chung came home while first year Andrea Delgado (Miami, Fla.) swiped second.

Hsu increased Wellelsey's lead to 5-0 in the fifth with an RBI single scoring junior Elli DeCleene (North Reading, Mass.). Young shut down WPI's offense, stranding four runners on base.

Senior Sophia Togneri (Hudson, Mass.) allowed eight hits with one strikeout in the circle for the Engineers.

Game 2 | WPI 10, Wellesley 5 | Final 

Early offense propelled the Engineers to a game two over their Wellesley adversaries. WPI had 12 hits in total.

Wellesley struck early with two runs in the top of the first. Delgado drove in the first run for Wellelsey with a sacrifice bunt scoring Hsu. Chung then advanced home on a passed ball.

The Engineers quickly erased Wellesley's lead, tying the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the first. First year Destiny Lum (Kahaluʻu, Hawaii) singled and a throwing error brought two runs across the plate for WPI. WPI added two more in the bottom of the second, starting with an RBI groundout from junior Sydney Russell (Arlington, Va.) before Ambrosino scored on an error.

Another sacrifice bunt from Delgado trimmed WPI's lead to 4-3 in the third but WPI struck back in the bottom half of the inning when Sherwood tripled home two runs.

The Blue fought back, cutting the deficit 6-5 in WPI's favor in the top of the fifth. An error by WPI scored junior Chloe Theriault (Peoria, Ariz.). Shortly after, classmate Parker Phillips (River Forest, Ill.) grounded out to second, bringing home a run.

WPI piled on four runs in the fifth. A double from first year Emma Nagy (Monroe, Wash.) and a single from grad student Gabi Cerbo (Middletown, N.J.) each scored a run before Lum drilled a double to right to plate two more runs and helped WPI lead 10-5, which remained the score through the final out.

Nagy struck out two through six innings for WPI while reliever Kelly Pritchard (Orange, Conn.) struck out two in an inning. Senior Marisa Sgambati (Scottsdale, Ariz.) struck out two over four innings for the Blue.

The Engineers will await the NEWMAC Softball Championship draws to find out their next opponent.