DUDLEY, Mass. (March 26, 2016) - The Western New England University softball team opened its 2016 Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) schedule this afternoon with a pair of victories over Nichols College. The Golden Bears rolled to a 9-1 victory in the opener, before posting a 7-4 triumph in game two.

Western New England 9, Nichols 1 (6 innings)
The Golden Bear offense produced 14 hits and nine runs in the opener, led by junior Gabby Lavinio's (Dalton, Mass.) 2-for-2 effort with two home runs, two walks and three RBI. Junior Corianna DeLisi (Tuxedo, N.Y.) and freshman Emilie Baldwin (Florence, Mass.) also reached base four times each with two hits and two walks, while sophomore Lindsay Williams (Coventry, Conn.) added three hits out of the No. 9 spot in the batting order.

Senior Heidi Grieger (Hyde Park, N.Y.) improved to 4-4 on the season after getting the start in the circle and limiting the Bison to just one run on three hits over four innings of work. Sophomore Sarah Broderick (Woodbury, Conn.) shut Nichols out over the final two frames, striking out three batters and giving up just two hits.

Lavinio staked the Golden Bears to a 2-0 lead with a two-run homer in the top of the first inning, before leaving the yard again in the third with a solo shot.

Nichols got a run back in the bottom half of the inning on junior Christina Barrows' (Carver, Mass.) solo homer, but the Bison were unable to generate any offense the rest of the way.

The Golden Bears broke the game open with four runs in the top of the fourth, highlighted by RBI singles from senior McKenzie Pezze (Albany, N.Y.) and Baldwin, before extending their lead to eight with two more runs in the sixth.

Western New England 7, Nichols 4
The Golden Bears evened their record at .500 with a comeback victory in the second game of the day. The Western New England offense pounded out 14 more hits, with six different players posting two-hit efforts. Lavinio and Pezze led the way, driving in two runs each, while Broderick earned the win with four shutout innings of relief, striking out six batters and giving up just one hit.

Junior Katie Wood (Westport, Mass.) got the Golden Bears on the board in the top of the first with an RBI double down the right field line, but Nichols responded with three runs in the bottom half of the inning, two of which scored on sophomore Kasey Ayer's (Niantic, Conn.) double to right center.

The back-and-forth continued in the top of the second, as Western New England pulled back in front (5-3) on RBI singles by DeLisi and Pezze, and a two-run single by Lavinio. Nichols cut the deficit to one in the bottom of the third, when sophomore Kendall Meehan (Danvers, Mass.) drove in Barrows with an infield single, but Broderick cruised through the next three innings, and sophomore Emily Cramer (Stoughton, Mass.) closed the door on the Bison in the seventh.

Western New England added an insurance run in the fifth on an RBI single by sophomore Lucia Cavacini (Natick, Mass.), and another the following inning as Pezze drove in her second run of the game, extending the final margin of victory to three.

The Golden Bears (7-7, 2-0 CCC) will look to keep rolling on Tuesday afternoon, when they host Westfield State for a non-conference doubleheader at 3 p.m. Nichols (5-7, 0-2 CCC) returns to action next Friday against Eastern Nazarene.