Softball Sweeps Bentley Wednesday at Home
Links: Box Score (G1) | Box Score (G2)
NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. – The Merrimack College softball team used a two-run home run by senior Becca Armstrong (Methuen, Mass.) to take Game 1 against Bentley, 2-0, before exploding for 11 runs in an 11-6 Game 2 victory to sweep the Falcons in a Northeast-10 Conference doubleheader on Wednesday afternoon on campus.
The Basics
Score (G1): Merrimack 2, Bentley 0
Score (G2): Merrimack 11, Bentley 6
Records: Merrimack (14-20, 7-9 NE-10) | Bentley (5-12, 2-6 NE-10)
Location: Warrior Softball Diamond | North Andover, Mass.
How It Happened
In Game 1, Armstrong broke a scoreless tie with her second career home run – and first at home – and that was enough for junior Alexis Perry (Westford, Vt.), who went the distance on the mound to pace the Warriors to a 2-0 victory.
After sophomore Haley Currie (Burlington, Mass.) doubled to lead off the inning Armstrong came to bat with a runner at third and two down and promptly sent a towering shot over the left field wall to spot the hosts a two-run lead.
That was all Perry would need; the right-hander struck out three and yielded only five hits over seven innings to pick up her team-leading sixth win of the season. She worked out of a two-out, bases-loaded situation in the fourth and allowed only two more base runners form there on out.
Wednesday's late game featured plenty more offense than the opener, as a grand slam from freshman Amanda Brush (Harleysville, Pa.) set the tone early en route to an 11-6 victory for the Warriors.
After RBI singles from freshman Brooke Gubala (Raynham, Mass.) and senior Lindsay Gibbs (Acton, Mass.) put the hosts ahead by two, Brush came to the plate with the bases loaded and made her first collegiate home run a memorable one, crushing it beyond the wall in straightaway center to spot the Warriors a 6-0 lead after one. An inning later, Armstrong laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to plate sophomore Mariah Tenney (Winchendon, Mass.) to up the lead to seven.
Bentley used a pair of homers to draw to within three (7-4) in the fourth, but sophomore Kaleigh Finigan (Medford, Mass.) responded with a deep home run of her own to make it 8-4.
The visitors capitalized on a pair of errors and added two unearned runs in the top of the fifth, but that would be it, as junior Brittany Razo (Anahim, Calif.) doubled in Brush for an extra tally in the fifth before more insurance runs scored in the sixth before freshman Courtney Zambello (Sharon, Mass.) recorded the final outs in the seventh.
Inside The Numbers
- Freshman Megan Cook (Bellingham, Mass.) started Game 2 and went 3-2/3 innings with three strikeouts and no walks before Zambello finished it off with five strikeouts over the final 3-1/3 innings during which she gave up no earned runs and only two hits to pick up her second win of the season
- Five different Warriors finished with two hits on the day: Armstrong, Gubala, Brush, Tenney and Gibbs
- Armstrong and Brush both shared the team lead with four RBIs and five total bases
- Merrimack finished with a 15-13 advantage in hits over Bentley while both sides committed two errors apiece
Up Next
Merrimack wraps up a stretch of 11 games in six days tomorrow when it hosts Stonehill for a single game beginning at 3 p.m.
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