Box Score
West Haven, Conn. - Second-seeded University of New Haven scored four runs in the bottom of the third inning on its way to a 5-2 Northeast-10 softball championship tournament win over seventh-seeded American International College Wednesday afternoon.
Junior pitcher Breanne Gleason (Bristol, Conn.) scored what proved to be the game-winning run on a single to center off the bat of sophomore second baseman Courtney Garland (East Meadow, N.Y.) as the Chargers (31-14) plated four runs on six hits in the third.
The Yellow Jackets got two runs back in the top of the fifth when senior shortstop
Deanna Zanetti (Hampden, Mass.) launched a two-run homer, her second of the season, over the right field fence to cut AIC’s deficit in half, but Garland answered with a solo shot to left center to lead-off the bottom half of the frame for the 5-2 final.
Gleason went the distance for New Haven, allowing two runs on five hits with 12 strikeouts to improve to 28-13 for the season. Freshman pitcher
Kristen Dolan (Norwood, Mass.) took the loss for the Yellow Jackets after allowing four runs in 2.1 innings.
Senior pitcher
Ashley Deegan (Durham, Conn.) allowed one run in two innings of relief and senior pitcher
Sara Puglisi (Amsterdam, N.Y.) tossed 1.2 scoreless innings to close the game.
AIC had several chances to put additional runs on the board, but Gleason was able to work out of each of those situations. Each of the first two batters reached in the top of the fourth and the Yellow Jackets had two on with two outs in the second, but were unable to push a run across the plate.
AIC finished the season with a record of 23-22, marking the program’s first winning season since 2003, and was making its first playoff appearance since qualifying for the 2004 NE-10 tournament.