Lynx Power Past Nighthawks

The Newbury College softball team dropped two to reigning New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) champion Lesley University. Lynx shortstop Sarah Apgar (Andover, N.J./Lenape Valley) capped off a four-for-six afternoon with 10 RBIs launching two grand slam homeruns in the top of the second inning of game two as Lesley batted around three times en route to the 19-1 victory.

Lesley jumped out in front early in game one. The bats were alive for the Lynx as they batted around in the first two frames putting up six and five runs respectively. Game one starter Cassandra Knox (Sea Cliff, N.Y./North Shore) shut down Newbury retiring eight straight Nighthawks following first baseman Rebecca Roach’s (Charlton, Mass./Shepherd Hill Regional)  line drive to right, including striking out the side in order in the bottom of the third.  Roach broke up the streak drawing a two-out walk from the Lesley ace  in the bottom of fourth. Knox pitched a complete game, two-hitter fanning while fanning 11 Newbury batters.  

In the second game of the twin-billing, Newbury found themselves playing from behind once again. Emily Mangiaratti (Amherst, Mass./Amherst Regional) opened up the game with a double and scored the first run on a sacrifice fly to center. Roach minimized the damage, getting centerfielder Alyson Durben (Stow, Mass./Nashoba Regional) to pop back up to the mound to end the frame.

After a one-two-three home half of the first, the Lynx flexed their muscles once again, scoring 10 runs before the first out was recorded as catcher Molly Sarson (Sanford, Maine/Sanford) flew out to right. But the damage had yet to be done as the Lynx batted around twice more to take a 18-1 lead. They grabbed another run in the third after the Nighthawks prevented the shut-out as second baseman Teressa Farioli (East Longmeadow, Mass./East Longmeadow) in to score the lone run.

Newbury drops to 1-20 with the loss and 1-4 in conference action while Lesley improves to 15-6 and remain undefeated in the NECC at 6-0. The Nighthawks return to the diamond on Wednesday April 20^th when they travel to Longmeadow, Mass. for a double-header against Bay-Path College. First pitch is scheduled for 4:00pm.