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Box Score 2 HARTFORD, Conn.--The Western New England University softball team split a non-conference doubleheader Tuesday at Trinity College, taking a 5-3 win in the first game before falling 10-0 in five innings in the nightcap. The Golden Bears' season record now stands at 16-16 while the host Bantams are 10-17.
In the first game, senior co-captain
Maria Francese and freshman
Gabby Lavinio both went 2-for-4 at the plate to pace the WNE offense, which outhit Trinity 7 to 6. Francese also scored two runs and had two batted in on a double to center field for a 2-0 lead in the top of the third inning.
Reigning Commonwealth Coast Conference Pitcher of the Week
Heidi Grieger struck out four batters, scattered six singles, allowed three runs (one earned) while going the distance for the victory, evening her record to 6-6 on the season.
Elizabeth McQuaid led Trinity with two hits and she scored a run.
Sophomore
Alexis Bukowski gave WNE a 3-0 lead with her team-leading third home run in the fourth frame.
The teams traded runs in the sixth inning as
Kacey Dory scored on a Trinity throwing error by the infield and McQuaid scored on a wild pitch after she had reached on a fielding error to lead off the bottom half. Western New England led 4-1.
The Golden Bears added an insurance run in their last at-bat after senior co-captain
Katie Eckert knocked in Lavinio on an error to first base. Lavinio hit a double to left field with two outs and went to third on a Francese infield single.
Bianca Brenz hit a two-run single in the bottom of the seventh to close the gap to 5-3, but Grieger got two groundouts with runners at first and third to end the game.
In the second contest, WNE could generate only four hits off Lily Jewell as she earned the shutout. Junior
Jocelyn Agnelli, Bukowski and Lavinio each had a double while Eckert singled for the Golden Bears.
The Bantams took a 1-0 advantage in the first inning on an Abigail Ostrom RBI-single and then tacked on three more in the next stanza. Trinity scored in every inning but the fourth, adding three runs again in the third and fifth.
McQuaid went 4-for-4 at the plate and Ostrom blasted a home run among her three hits and she drove in five runs for the Bantams, who connected for 14 hits.
Western New England returns to action on Wednesday (3 p.m.) at Wesleyan University in another non-conference doubleheader, signaling the Golden Bears' final two games of the doubleheader before the CCC Championship Tournament.
