WALTHAM, Mass. – On the first day of action at the 2012 Eastern College Athletic Conference Division III New England Softball Tournament championship round at Brandeis, third-seeded Endicott College defeated No. 7 Simmons, 9-1, and the top-seeded Judges, 6-1, to advance to tomorrow's championship round. Simmons defeated Rivier, 6-0, to stay alive in the tournament's first elimination game, after Brandeis had opened the day with a 7-5 win over the fifth-seeded Raiders.
GAME TWO: ENDICOTT 9, SIMMONS 1 (5 innings)
In the second game of the day, Endicott blasted four home runs and held Simmons to just two hits en route to a 9-1 victory.
EC got all the scoring they would need in the bottom of the first inning. Sophomore 2B Jesse Bilafer (Concord, Mass./Concord Carlisle) reached on a bunt single with one out. After a walk and a fielder's choice left runners on the corners, junior LF Byrne Katz (Trumbull, Conn./Trumbull) blasted her fourth home run of the season to deep left-center field and give Endicott a 3-0 lead.
The Gulls would expand the lead in the fifth thanks to three more round trippers, all with two outs. Junior DP Colleen Martin (Cape Elizabeth, Maine/Cape Elizabeth) went deep to right center with no one on for her team-leading seventh of the season. Junior 1B Nicole Devlin (Dudley, Mass./Shepherd Hill Regional) and rookie SS Shelby Phillips (Taunton, Mass./Taunton) each hit two-run shots, their second and first of the season, respectively. Phillips's first career bomb made the score 8-0.
Simmons sophomore Christina Mulcahy (Cambridge, Mass.) spoiled EC's shutout bid in the fourth with her third home run of the season, just sneaking one over the center field fence. The Gulls reestablished the eight-run lead when Martin drove in Bilafer in the fifth, and rookie Cam Sprague (Clifton Park, N.Y./Shenendehowa) retired the side in order in the fifth to end the game early. Sprague improved to 7-6 on the season with a two-hitter, striking out four and walking three.
GAME THREE: SIMMONS 6, RIVIER 0 (Rivier eliminated)
In the first elimination game of the weekend, Simmons rookie Lauren Backhaus (Windsor, Conn.) tossed her 11th shutout of the season to defeat Rivier, 6-0.
Backhaus scattered seven hits over seven innings, striking out four and walking one to improve to 15-8 on the season. She allowed just two runners past second base for the entire game, getting a heads-up 4-3-2 double play in the first and getting two key strikeouts after the Raider's Nicole Peacock singled and stole second and third with none away in the third.
The Sharks would break through with three unearned runs in the fourth inning against Rivier's Hillary Tarr when rookie catcher Victoria Luongo (Medford, Mass.) drove in the game's first run and junior Ari King (Westford, Mass.) followed with a two-run single to center field. Simmons doubled their lead in the third courtesy Mulcahy's second home run of the day, this time a no-doubt-about it shot to center field. That was enough for Backhaus, who allowed just two base runners the rest of the way. Simmons improved to 26-17 in advancing to day two, while Rivier ended their campaign at 26-14.
In tomorrow's action, Brandeis will face Simmons at 11 a.m. in an elimination game. The winner of that game will face Endicott at 1 p.m. If the winner of tomorrow's first game defeats the Gulls, a winner-take-all contest will be played at 3 p.m.