LOWELL, Mass.—The fifth-seeded River Hawks of UMass Lowell posted a 3-1 win over the Southern New Hampshire University softball team on Tuesday afternoon in the first round the Northeast-10 Conference Championship Tournament at River View Field. With the loss, the Penmen conclude their season with a 19-26 record, while the win improves the River Hawks to 34-18 and advances them to the second round of play against No. 4 New Haven on Friday.
Melissa Vitagliano (Bedford, N.H.) would connect for a solo homerun to left field to give the Penmen the 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning. The River Hawks would then string together three-straight singles to load the bases in the bottom of the second inning with no outs. Ashley Daniels would then draw a walk to tie the game at 1-1. With the bases still loaded, Meagan Guy popped up to pitcher Kelsey Griffin (Scarborough, Maine.) to tally the first out of the inning. A grounder by Caelyn Ford to Penmen second-baseman Kelsea Cheney (Abington, Mass.) would tally the second out at the plate, and a strikeout by UMass Lowell's Heather Ross would end the inning with the score tied at one run apiece.
The teams would battle through two scoreless innings until the bottom of the fifth inning, when UMass Lowell connected for two singles. Both runners would advance on a sacrifice bunt, and Guy would tag up and score on a sacrifice fly by Elyssa Boris to give the River Hawks the 2-1 advantage.
UMass Lowell would tally another run in the bottom of the sixth inning on three-straight hits, with Ali Ferraro collecting the RBI.
Griffin took the loss in the circle for Southern New Hampshire, scattering nine hits, three earned runs, and two walks while striking out three. She wraps up her career with the Penmen with 298 strikeouts, ranking her second all-time in program history. Rachel Schafler earned the win for the River Hawks, sacrificing three hits, and one earned run. She did not give up a walk and struck out five Penmen batters.
In addition to Vitagliano, Cheney and Cara Daly (Plainville, Mass.) tallied hits for the Penmen.
The River Hawks will advance to the double-elimination portion of the Northeast-10 Championship Tournament, taking on the fourth-seeded Chargers of the University of New Haven on Friday afternoon.
