Simmons Softball put up four runs in the fourth inning en-route to a 7-3 win over MIT Thursday afternoon at Briggs Field in Cambridge, Mass. Junior Emily Colligan (Leominster, Mass.) had three hits and scored twice and senior Sammi Letizio (Windham, N.H.) worked five innings to earn the win, as the Sharks improved to 5-2 on the season. The Engineers' Jessica Iacobucci took the loss, allowing just one earned run over seven innings and striking out a career-high 12 batters.

"Today was a complete team win. We used three pitchers to keep MIT's batters off balance and it proved effective," said Head Coach Anne Hennigan. "Equally as impressive was our offense. Despite striking out far too many times, we did have some quality at bats. We came up with clutch hits and put the ball in play when we needed to."

Colligan led off the fourth with a single to right and was moved over by Amanda Gould's sacrifice. Junior Stephanie Murray (Groveland, Mass.) reached on an infield hit and MIT's Jessica Oleinik could not handle a hard shot at third, plating Colligan. A wild pitch by Iacobucci would score Murray, and two more RBI singles by Annie Thompson and Ashley Wheeler extended the Simmons lead to 5-0.

The Engineers responded in the home half of the inning, as Keri Dixon launched a shot over Gould's head to drive in Oleinik.

Tech attempted to rally back in the sixth, as Oleinik and Dixon reached base to start the frame. However, Anna Christensen hit a line shot right to junior shortstop Annie Thompson (Pacific Palisades, Calif.), who turned and doubled off Oleinik as she broke for third. Trinity Leonard then drove in two runs with a two-out hit.

Simmons answered back in the top of the seventh. With one out, Colligan singled up the middle and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Murray struck out, but reached first on an error by the catcher, as she couldn't handle the third strike. Bourassa followed with a grounder to shortstop that was mishandled, scoring Colligan and putting Murray at third and sophomore Desiree Bourassa (Rochester, Vt.) at second. Thompson then delivered her fourth hit of the game and second RBI of the night, driving in Murray with a single. The two runs were a great answer to MIT's run in the sixth, and ensured the win as Collier closed out the seventh.

Iacobucci's 12 strikeouts eclipsed her previous career best of 11, which she accomplished twice during her rookie campaign. Iacobucci and Leonard had a team-high two hits while Dixon went one-for-two with a walk.

"This was a great non-conference win against a strong NEWMAC school, and I hope to carry this momentum into the weekend when we open up conference play," said Hennigan.

Simmons will play a doubleheader at Rivier on Saturday, March 20 at 1:00pm.