Softball Takes Two from St. Michael's

 Boxscore Game 1 - Boxscore Game 2

SPRINGFIELD, Mass - Sophomore Michelle Franey (Abington, Mass.) stroked a single up the middle with senior Nicole Litz (Rotterdam, NY) pinch running at second base with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning in the second game of the day to help lead the American International College softball team to an 8-7 victory and their first Northeast-10 doubleheader sweep of the year over St. Michael's College Saturday afternoon at Groff Field. The win pushes the Yellow Jackets to 16-19 overall and 7-13 in the conference. The loss drops the Purple Knights to 7-18 overall and 1-15 in the Northeast-10.

With the two wins, American International College head coach Judy Groff pulled one win away from a historic 900 career victories. 

AIC hit the ball well all afternoon. In the first game, the Yellow Jackets pounded out 10 runs on 14 hits to grab a 10-2 win in only six innings. Senior Tara DeMontier (Amesbury, Mass.) crushed the ball in all three plate appearances, blasting two homeruns and a triple. On the day, the senior third baseman had four RBI and was intentionally walked twice in the second contest.

Junior Sara Puglisi grabbed her seventh win on the season, pitching all six innings, allowing only two runs. Her counterpart, Megan O'Connor, who also got some work in the second game, went four and a third, surrendering 12 hits and nine runs.

Junior Kellie Brown (Gill, Mass.) had two hits, while the hero of the second game Franey posted a two hit performance, hitting the fence with a double and also adding a single.

The second contest was certainly more balanced. Both teams earned two runs in the third inning, starting with the Purple Knights. With a runner standing at second O'Connor grabbed a hold of a senior Megan Nickerson (Greenfield, Mass.) fastball and sent it over the right field wall.

AIC countered when Brown drove home senior Tara Gorenc (Southwick, Mass.) who singled to lead off the inning and senior Kayla Donnelly (Pittsfield, Mass.) earned an RBI groundout in the bottom of the third.

AIC jumped out to a three run advantage in the fourth but quickly saw the game evened in the fifth when the Purple Knights touched home three times of their own. After the Yellow Jackets took a one run lead in their half of the sixth, the Purple Knights sent the game into extra innings when Kelly Losi hit an RBI single with a pair of runners on board.

Neither team could scrap up the go ahead run until the ninth, when with two outs Franey drove in Litz, who was pinch running for Ashley Deegan (Durham, Conn.), the innings leadoff batter, who singled to center field.

Nickerson earned the win for the Yellow Jackets going seven and a third innings giving up five runs. Junior Sara Swepston (Dallas, Pa) went an inning and two thirds in relief for AIC.

The Jackets will host UMass-Lowell tomorrow afternoon at 1:00 pm.