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Recap | Box Score | Box Score
Hawks Fly Over Nighthawks
The Newbury College softball team dropped two to Becker College, Friday afternoon, 8-0 and 8-5. Sophomore starter Rebecca Roach (Charlton, Mass./Shepherd Hill Regional) tossed a complete game in game two of the twin billing, striking out 11 Hawks in the process.
Becker starter Paige Needham (Worcester, Mass./Holy Name) pitched a shutout in game one allowing just three hits. She kept the Nighthawks off balance fanning out seven Newbury batters. She toed the rubber once again in game two and helped her own cause at the dish.
Centerfielder Lindsay Hanna (Portland, Maine/Deering) entered today two hits shy of 100 in her career. She was held to a lone single in the early game but recorded the milestone in her first plate appearance of game two, rocketing a one-out double down the left field line, setting the table for Needham. The Worcester native took a Roach offering to deep right center to put the Hawks up early in game two, 2-0.
The Nighthawks cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the frame. Left fielder Samantha Rios (Bronx, N.Y./School of the Future) sparked a mini one-out rally. Rios lined a single into right the advanced into scoring position on the throw. Second baseman Teressa Farioli (East Longmeadow, Mass./East Longmeadow) followed up with an infield single. Keeping the pressure on Needham, Farioli stole her third base of the season swiping second as the Nighthawks had two in scoring position with less than two outs. It apparently rattled Needham as she uncorked a wild pitch to Plate Rios with the first Newbury run.
Becker grabbed the run back in the top of the third to re-gain the two run lead but it was short lived. Shortstop Theresa Hylinski (Stratford, Conn./Stratford) ignited a four-run rally sending a base hit back where it came from into centerfield. Hylinski wound up on third a batter later as third baseman Talan Barron’s (Methuen, Mass./Methuen) throw on a Brittany Stracher (Dudley, Mass./Shepherd Hill) ground ball ended up in the outfield. First baseman Joanna Robie (Andover, Mass./Andover) plated Hylinski driving a base hit into right to chip away at the Hawk lead. Two batters later, catcher Ariel Ross (Gales Ferry, Conn./Ledyard) drew a two-out walk to load the bases for Rios.
Becker’s Maggie Levesque (North Adams, Mass./McCann Tech), who replaced starter Rachel Walsh (Hadley, Mass./Hopkins Academy) earlier in the inning, could not coral Rios’ fly ball as Robie and Stracher came in. The Nighthawks had the one-run lead and runners at the corners. Rios swiped second to eliminate the force play shortly before Farioli grounded out to the right side of the infield for the second out but in the backdoor came Ross with the fifth Newbury run.
The Hawks re-gained the lead putting up a crooked three in the fifth. They added two insurance runs in the top of the seventh to seal Becker’s 12th win of the season.
Newbury drops to 2-22 on the season and 2-7 in the conference while Becker improves to 12-16 and 8-4 in the NECC. The Nighthawks return to the diamond on Thursday April 28th when they travel to Nashua, N.H. to face NECC foe Daniel Webster College. First pitch is set for 3:00pm.
