Daniel Webster Tops Bay Path, 7-2 In NECC Tourney Opener
04.28.2009
Author: Ken Belbin, Assistant Director of Athletics, Daniel Webster College
Nashua– Theresa DiSantis (Hinsdale, Mass.) went 2 for 3 knocking in two runs and Amy Waller (Berlin, Mass.) added a two-run double as the fourth-seeded Daniel Webster College softball team posted a 7-2 victory over fifth-seeded Bay Path College in the opening round of the inaugural New England Collegiate Conference softball championship tournament Tuesday afternoon at Eagle Field.
The victory advances the Eagles (18-14-1) into the final four double-elimination round which begins Friday. Top seed Lesley University will host the remainder of the tournament on the campus of UMass-Boston.
The Eagles will face Lesley in the first game at 10:00 a.m. Should the Eagles win, they would play again at 4:00 p.m. A loss would place them in a loser’s bracket contest at 2:00 p.m.
The victory was just the second post-season win ever for the Eagles and first since 1997. Daniel Webster is making its first post-season appearance since 2003.
Rookie Sam Langlois (Raymond, N.H.) went the distance on the mound for DWC, spinning a two-hitter, allowing two runs (one earned) over seven innings, striking out nine. Langlois (13-7) won for the 11th time in her last 12 outings. Tiana Winter (New Ipswich, N.H.) added two hits and knocked in a run for the Eagles, while Amanda Wilson (Merrimack, N.H.) chipped in with a RBI single. Amanda Varricchio (Middletown, Conn.) added a hit and scored twice. Samantha Gunseth (Swanzey, N.H.) registered both Wildcats (17-19) hits including a run-scoring double. Jess Nizinski (W. Springfield, Mass.) added one RBI. Kristal Cormier (Rochester, N.H.) took the loss (8-10).
The Eagles took control plating two runs in the first and three in the second and added single runs in the third and fourth. Bay Path pushed across single runs in the fourth and seventh.
DiSantis put the hosts up 2-0 in the first with a two-run single scoring Varricchio and Lauren Chesnulevich (Hudson, N.H.). The Eagles broke it open with a four-hit attack in the second. A one-out Wilson single scored Kristina Rieger (Concord, N.H.) to make it 3-0 and Waller followed doubling in Mikaelia Ramnanan (Rahway, N.J.) and Wilson. Winter stroked a two-out single in the third to score DiSantis, who had singled and stole both second and third. Langlois ran into brief trouble in the top of the fourth, walking four of the first five batters for a 6-1 game, but settled down to strikeout Kaitlin Begin and induced a Sarah Wright pop out to Waller. Varricchio singlehandedly made it 7-1 in the fourth, getting clipped with two out. She followed by stealing second and advanced home on a throwing error while stealing third. Gunseth closed out the scoring doubling in Begin in the top of the seventh. Both Waller and Varricchio extended their hitting streaks to 16 games, respectively.
