MASSACHUSETTS MARITIME SOFTBALL

Sunday, March 20, 2016

Alison Rollins Field, Buzzards Bay, Mass.

GAME #1 FINAL:          MASSACHUSETTS MARITIME 2, MAINE-PRESQUE ISLE 0

GAME #2 FINAL:          MAINE-PRESQUE ISLE 8, MASSACHUSETTS MARITIME 4

BUZZARDS BAY, Mass. --  Sophomore Carli Thomas (Brewster, Mass.) tossed a complete-game one-hitter and struck out a career-high 14 to lead Massachusetts Maritime to a 2-0 opening game victory over Maine-Presque Isle in a non-league college softball doubleheader played Sunday afternoon at Alison Rollins Field.  Senior Katie Patenaude (Presque Isle, Maine) rapped out three hits and drove in three runs to give the visiting Owls an 8-4 nightcap triumph and a split of the twinbill.

Thomas took a no-hitter into the sixth inning of the opener for the host Buccaneers (1-3) before Patenaude broke it up with a one-out double to left center, but that would prove to be the final base runner of the lid-lifter for the visiting Owls (6-2), as Thomas fanned the final six batters she faced to earn her first win of the season.  Sophomore Kaylene Murphy (Randolph, Mass.) provided the only run Massachusetts Maritime would need in the first contest with a two-out RBI double in the third inning, and freshman Rachel Gardner (Bourne, Mass.) added an insurance tally for the hosts in the fourth, as she singled, advanced to third on a groundout and scored on a wild pitch.  Sophomore Sara Packard (St. Albans, Maine) allowed just those two hits and struck out seven in suffering the opening setback inside the circle for Maine-Presque Isle, which saw its five-game winning streak come to an end.

Patenaude gave the Owls a 1-0 lead in their first at-bat of the nightcap with an RBI single, but the Buccaneers answered back with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first on Gardner’s two-run single to take their lone lead of the second outing.  Maine-Presque Isle took a 3-2 lead in the third on a pair of bases-loaded walks to senior Amanda Allen (Limestone, Maine) and freshman Mikayla Churchill (Washburn, Maine), but Massachusetts Maritime evened matters in the bottom half of the inning when Gardner singled, advanced to third and scored on an RBI groundout off the bat of freshman Emily Goodwin (Halifax, Mass.).  The visitors took the lead for good in the fifth when freshman Dalynn Jacobs (Riverside, R.I.) scored on a wild pitch, and the Owls iced their triumph with four insurance runs in the top of the seventh when freshman Hannah Williams (Park Falls, N.S.) was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, freshman Jordi Legassie (Presque Isle, Maine) drew a bases-loaded walk and Patenaude followed with a two-run single.  The hosts got their fourth run in their final at-bat on sophomore Emily Bacchiocchi’s (Wareham, Mass.) RBI single, as Packard scattered eight hits and fanned four to improve to 6-2 on the season.  Patenaude amassed three of Maine-Presque Isle’s five hits in the nightcap and finished the doubleheader with four of the visitors’ six safeties on the day.

Gardner rapped out two of Massachusetts Maritime’s eight second game hits, as Thomas also collected a pair of hits at the plate and struck out seven in once again going the distance on the mound for the Buccaneers, who also received singles off the bats of Murphy, senior Brittany Driscoll (Spencer, Mass.) and junior Wesley Fehskens (Wareham, Mass.).

Massachusetts Maritime hosts Daniel Webster in a non-league doubleheader on Tuesday afternoon at Alison Rollins Field beginning at 3:30 p.m., while Maine-Presque Isle travels to Brooklyn, N.Y. on Saturday afternoon for a non-league twinbill with St. Joseph’s (N.Y.) that begins at Noon.