University of Massachusets Athletics
University of Massachusetts
Rhode Island
Softball Clinches First Round Bye With Sweep At URI
May 07, 2011 | Softball
May 7, 2011
Game 1 Box Score | Game 2 Box Score
KINGSTON, R.I. - After breaking open a scoreless pitching duel with a six-run ninth inning in a 6-1 game-one victory, UMass got the bats going early in game two, winning 11-1 in five innings to give the Minutewomen (27-17, 14-5 A-10) a doubleheader sweep at Rhode Island (7-46, 2-18 A-10) and clinch the No. 2 seed and first round bye in next week's Atlantic 10 Championship. UMass closes the regular season on Sunday with a 1 p.m. Senior Day game against Quinnipiac at the UMass Softball Complex.
Tiffany Meeks accounted for the first runs in game one with a two-run home run in the top of the ninth that spurred a six-run inning for the Minutewomen after Sara Plourde and Jayshree Narendran each had shutouts through the first eight innings of play. UMass used four walks, a single, two errors, and a hit batter to blow open the game in the ninth.
Lindsey Webster and Stephanie Mayne each hit home runs in game two as UMass scored runs in all five innings. Webster finished with three hits and two RBIs in the game, while Meghan Carta (2 RBIs), Tiffany Meeks, Christine Della Vechhia, and Cyndil Matthew (RBI) all had two hits.
Plourde (25-13) went the distance in both games, not allowing an earned run in 14 total innings. The junior allowed one unearned run on two hits and two walks with 18 strikeouts in game one, and then allowed one unearned run on two hits and one walk with nine strikeouts in game two.
Narendran (2-10) kept UMass off-balance through eight innings, allowing just three hits while UMass left six runners on base until finally getting to the lefty in the ninth inning. Sam Bedore (4-12) took the loss in game two, allowing five earned runs on nine hits in 3+ innings before giving way to reliever Cassie Basker.
Carta started the scoring in UMass' 14-hit performance in the second game with a sacrifice fly in the first inning. An illegal pitch and Matthew each drove in runs in the second inning, before Webster led off the third with her team-leading seventh home run of the season and Teea Rogers made it 5-0 with a RBI double. Carta drove in a pair of runs with a two-out single in the fourth.
Leading 7-1 in the fifth, Mayne blasted her fifth homer of the season, a three-run pinch-hit shot to center, and Webster added a RBI single up the middle to make it an 11-1 game.
Della Vecchia finished the day a combined 3-for-4 with three runs scored.
The Minutewomen close the regular season at home on Sunday with Senior Day vs. Quinnipiac at 1 p.m.
