CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Simmons softball (25-15) fell to No. 16 MIT (33-6) on the first day of the NCAA Regional Championships, dropping the Sharks into the loser's bracket of the three-day tournament.

Senior right-hander Maddie Castigliego came out strong in the opening innings. The Rhode Island native retired Jordan Sell and Ava Ladd on strikes to begin the game before getting Kennedy Adkinson ground out to first-year Leah Connor at third.

Castigliego ran into trouble in the home half of the second with the bases loaded one out. But after a quick strikeout of Rylie Spiegel for the second out, she got Haley Samuelson to fly out to right to get out of the inning unscathed.

It remained a scoreless game until the bottom of the fourth when the Engineers took advantage of a leadoff single and a walk and pushed across a pair of runs.

In their final at bat of the game, the Sharks threatened to plate a couple of runs. Sophomore Raya Anderson opened the frame with a triple down the right field line and knocked MIT right-hander Becca O'Connor out of the game. However, the threat was short-lived.

Ladd snagged an opposite field line drive off the bat of junior Jordyn Rubin out of the air and slapped the tag down on Anderson, who was diving back to the bag for the double play. Senior Shannon McMahon struck out to the end the game.

SIMMONS HIGHLIGHTS

• Senior right-hander Maddie Castigliego tossed six innings allowing just two runs, while scattering eight hits and striking out four.
• Sophomore Raya Anderson went 1-3 from the top of line up, while defensively throwing out an MIT runner trying to score the Engineers' third run in the bottom of the fifth.
• First-year Leah Connor began the game with a single into left center as she went 1-3 from the lead-off spot.

UP NEXT
Simmons returns to the diamond tomorrow afternoon when they face RPI in an elimination game at 2:30 p.m. The Sharks dropped an 8-7 decision to RPI the last time they met on March 9, 2022.