Murphy, Cochrane Collect Two Hits Each As Softball Drops Season-Opening Twinbill To Maine-Presque Isle

MASSACHUSETTS MARITIME SOFTBALL

Sunday, March 19, 2017

Howard Sports Dome, Topsham, Maine

GAME #1 FINAL:          MAINE-PRESQUE ISLE 4, MASSACHUSETTS MARITIME 2

GAME #2 FINAL:          MAINE-PRESQUE ISLE 5, MASSACHUSETTS MARITIME 2 (5 INNINGS)

TOPSHAM, Maine --  Junior Sara Packard (St. Albans, Maine) scattered six hits and struck out 10 over 12 combined innings of work inside the circle to lead Maine-Presque Isle to a sweep of a non-league college softball doubleheader by scores of 4-2 in the opener and 5-2 in a five inning nightcap shortened due to field issues Sunday afternoon inside the Howard Sports Dome.

The Owls (3-1) overcame a 1-0 deficit in the opener by plating three runs in the top of the fifth on RBI singles by sophomore Jordi Legassie (Presque Isle, Maine) and freshman Emma Gogan (Truro, N.S.) that sandwiched an error, and after the Buccaneers (0-2) closed back to within a run in the bottom of the frame on junior Kaylene Murphy’s (Randolph, Mass.) run-scoring double, Maine-Presque Isle added an insurance tally in the sixth on a throwing error that accounted for the final score.  Junior Nicole Marucci (Naples, Maine) and freshman Delanie Strout (Greene, Maine) each collected two of the Owls’ six hits in the lid-lifter, as Packard allowed a pair of unearned runs and fanned seven in going the distance.  Freshman Melissa Cochrane (Walpole, Mass.), who led off the first with a single and scored on junior Carli Thomas’s (Brewster, Mass.) RBI groundout, allowed two earned runs and struck out four in her collegiate pitching debut for Massachusetts Maritime, which also received singles off the bats of freshmen Madison Ovadek (Greenland, N.H.) and Allyson Crowley (Leicester, Mass.).

Maine-Presque Isle jumped out to a 2-0 first inning lead in the nightcap on Gogan’s sacrifice fly and a safety squeeze by Packard, but the Buccaneers got a run back in the bottom half of the frame when Cochrane laced a lead-off triple and scored on Murphy’s safety squeeze.  Freshmen Ariel Williams’ (Frisco, Tex.) two-out, two-run double in the second extended the lead to 4-1 for the Owls, who received their final tally in the third on a throwing error.  Massachusetts Maritime closed out its scoring in the fourth when Murphy doubled, advanced to third on a groundout and scored on Ovadek’s sacrifice fly, and that would prove to be final margin as Packard retired the side in order in the fifth to complete Maine-Presque Isle’s sweep.

Williams and Legassie each had two of the Owls’ six hits in the nightcap, as Packard helped her own cause with a single and RBI while fanning three to improve to 3-1 on the season.  Cochrane allowed two earned runs over the first three frames for the Buccaneers inside the circle to fall to 0-2 on the spring.

Massachusetts Maritime heads to Nashua, N.H. on Tuesday afternoon to take on Daniel Webster in a non-league doubleheader that begins at 3:30 p.m., while Maine-Presque Isle travels to New Rochelle, N.Y. on Saturday afternoon for a non-league twinbill with SUNY-New Rochelle.