Worcester, Mass. (May 1) -- With a pair of victories over Saint Michael's College on Sunday afternoon, the Assumption College softball team clinched the Northeast-10 regular-season title as the Hounds won by scores of 3-0 and 6-2. The Northeast-10 regular-season crown is the third overall for the Greyhounds and the first for Assumption since 1991, when the Hounds shared the title with Merrimack. This is also the first outright league title for the Assumption softball program.
In game one, the Hounds got all the offense they needed in the bottom of the third as Assumption took the 3-0 lead. An RBI double to left field by senior Amy Gordon (Seekonk, Mass./Bishop Feehan) scored Melissa Jalbert (Gardner, Mass./Gardner) with the first run, followed by a two-RBI double to left from senior Ashley Bilodeau (Manchester, Conn./East Catholic). Assumption junior pitcher Jennifer Lowrey (Assonet, Mass./Apponequet) went the distance for the Hounds, allowed just three hits and striking out seven to improve to 12-7 on the season. Stephanie Frank was the losing pitcher for the Purple Knights, allowed three runs on seven hits to fall to 5-19 on the season.
In the second game of the doubleheader, Saint Michael's took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first on a two-RBI single to right center by Meghan Colitti. The Greyhounds answered in the bottom of the inning with an unearned run to cut the lead in half heading to the second. Senior catcher Bernadette Fuentes (Hicksville, N.Y./Holy Trinity) scored another unearned run in the second to give the Hounds the lead for good at 2-1. Assumption extended the lead to 4-2 on RBI singles from Bilodeau and Kolby Davenport (Merrimack, N.H./Merrimack) in the third, along with single runs in the fourth and sixth to account for the 6-2 final.
Lowrey pitched 5.2 innings of scoreless relief in game two, allowing just three hits with six strikeouts and no walks to improve to 13-7 overall. Frank is now 5-20 overall, allowing 10 hits and six runs in the loss for the Purple Knights.
With the sweep, the Hounds improve to 27-16 overall and 21-9 in Northeast-10 Conference play, while the Purple Knights end their season at 6-32 overall and 4-24 in the league. Assumption will now play host to the three-day, double-elimination Northeast-10 Conference Tournament next weekend. The entire Northeast-10 Conference Tournament schedule will be posted online at www.northeast10.org.
