SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- Top-seeded Western New England opened the 2015 Commonwealth Coast Conference Softball Championship Tournament with an exciting 7-4 victory Monday over No. 3 Curry at Golden Bear Softball Park, winning its eight consecutive game to improve to 27-7 on the season.
Senior tri-captain Lauren Zambrano (15-1) pitched the first six innings to get the win, scattering 10 hits and three walks while allowing four runs. She struck out seven Colonels. Junior Heidi Grieger pitched a perfect seventh to earn her second save.
Senior Samantha Mulhern drilled a two-run blast over the fence in center field in the bottom of the fifth inning to put WNE ahead for good, 4-3. Junior McKenzie Pezze gave the Golden Bears an insurance run later in the frame with a RBI-single to left to put the home team up by two runs. For Mulhern, it was her CCC-leading seventh home run which is a career high in a season.
Earlier in the fifth, the Colonels (13-17 overall) had scored two runs to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead. It began with an infield single by Amy Nolan, who advanced to second base on a groundout. One batter later, Ariel LaRosa laced a seeing-eye single through the right seed to bring home Nolan. LaRosa, who had advanced on the throw to home, scored from second base on a RBI-double to right-center by Kelly Duggan.
After Curry had closed the gap to 5-4 with a Nolan RBI-double down the right-field line in the sixth, WNE tacked on the final two runs of the game in the bottom half. Sophomore Corianna DeLisi drew a one-out walk and then she advanced to third base on Mulhern's double that hit the left-center field fence. Junior Heather Fecteau plated DeLisi on a groundout to shortstop, and junior Alexis Bukowski followed with a RBI-single to right to bring in Mulhern.
Western New England grabbed a 1-0 lead in the second stanza as senior Grace Kucharski came around to score, unearned, on a fielding error by the left fielder after sophomore Gabby Lavinio singled through the left side.
In the top of the fourth, the Colonels tied it at 1-1 but could have scored much more. After two walks sandwiched around a LaRosa single off Zambrano's leg to load the bases with just one out, Rachel Byrd singled through the right side to bring in Marissa Bruno who had a lead-off walk. Zambrano, however, shook off the hard-hit liner from Byrd's bat and struck out Allie Carver for the second out. Then the Golden Bears got out of the jam on a force-out at third base without further damage.
Lavinio belted her third home run of the spring for a 2-1 lead after four.
Curry stranded nine runners on base and WNE had seven left on.
In the first game played this afternoon at WNE, Curry defeated fifth-seeded Roger Williams, 3-1. Nolan led the way for the Colonels with three hits and Bruno went 2-for-3 with a run batted in. Curry took advantage of two Hawks errors to score a pair of unearned runs. Taylor Ahearn (10-7) tossed a four-hitter in the circle for the win. (Recap courtesy of WNE Sports Information)
