MANCHESTER, N.H. – The No. 1 seeded Southern New Hampshire softball team was defeated in a Northeast-10 semi-final game by No. 2 seeded University of New Haven by a score of 2-1 Friday evening at Penmen Field. The Chargers advance to the championship game tomorrow against Adelphi University. The Penmen are now 29-15, while New Haven is 36-12.

Two solo homeruns were the difference for the Chargers as they jumped out to an early lead in the second, and built on the lead again in the sixth.

After striking out the Penmen side in the first inning, the Chargers led-off the second with a blast to left field from Jess Spivey for the first run of the game and to take a 1-0 lead over SNHU.

The Penmen had an opportunity to score in the bottom of the fourth when Kelsea Cheney (Abington, Mass.) walked to get on base, and advanced to second on a Cristy Jenkins (Hudson, Mass.) sacrifice bunt. Cara Daly (Plainville, Mass.) followed Jenkins with a walk, and a New Haven balk advanced the two runners into scoring position. However, SNHU could not convert, and left two runners on base to end the inning.

In the top of the fifth, New Haven loaded the bases with two outs, but the Penmen defense answered to retire the inning with two runners left on base.

The scoring opportunities continued for Southern New Hampshire in the bottom of the fifth when Jessica Douillette (Concord, N.H.) led-off the inning with a walk. Christiana Galella (Eastchester, N.Y.) pinch ran for Douillette, and advanced to second on a Tesia Stanasek (Blackstone, Mass.) sacrifice bunt. Ali Maloof (Norwood, Mass.) followed with a single to advance Galella to third, and Maloof ended up on second after tagging up on pop-up to the catcher. With two outs, Kate Stanley (Kingston, Mass.) hit a hard groundball down the first base line, which got through and appeared to be a fair ball to score two Penmen runs, but the ball was soon declared foul, and the Chargers retired SNHU with two runners in scoring position.

New Haven built on its lead in the following inning on another homerun. Lindsey Couturier homered to center field to lead-off the top of the sixth, and give the Chargers a two-run advantage over the Penmen.

However, Southern New Hampshire answered in the bottom of the inning with three consecutive singles and a walk to get on the board and cut the deficit to one. Cheney, Jenkins, and Daly each singled to lead off the inning, and a Galella walk scored Cheney for a Penmen run heading into the final inning.

The Chargers put two runners in scoring position in the seventh, but Maloof struck out Sadie Redman for the final out, and for SNHU's final chance to win. But, the Penmen could not find an answer in their final at-bats.  

Maloof pitched a complete game for the Penmen in the circle while totaling four strikeouts and allowing five hits and two runs. Nicole King earned the win for the Chargers while pitching five innings with four strikeouts, four hits, and one run.