Darcy’s Late Heroics Lift No. 5 UMass Lowell Over No. 4 Caldwell in NCAA Opener

Friday, May 4

New Haven, Conn.

5:00 PM

University of Massachusetts Lowell

34-16

Caldwell College

37-15

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
UMass-Lowell	2	1	0	0	0	0	1	4	10	2
Caldwell College	1	0	0	0	2	0	0	3	5	1

Freshman Ariana Darcy: Game-winning RBI single in the seventh

Photo by: Bob Ellis

Darcy’s Late Heroics Lift No. 5 UMass Lowell Over No. 4 Caldwell in NCAA Opener

5/4/2012 8:28:00 PM | Softball

Box Score

River Hawks meet No. 1 Southern Connecticut Saturday at 11:00

Box Score

Freshman RF Ariana Darcy (Walkill, N.Y.) belted an RBI single in the top of the seventh inning to lead No. 5 UMass Lowell defeated No. 4 Caldwell College, 4-3, Friday in the NCAA Division II Softball Tournament East Regional at Yale University's DeWitt Family Field.

With the win, UMass Lowell (34-16) moves on to face No. 1-seed Southern Connecticut (38-10) Saturday at 11:00 a.m. The victory also matched UMass Lowell's school record for wins in a season, also achieved in 2011 and 2007.

Caldwell slipped to 37-11 and meets No. 8 Assumption Saturday at 1:30 in the elimination game. Southern Connecticut defeated Assumption, 1-0, in the early game Friday.

“I knew we weren't going to be happy just making it. We were coming here with business in mind,” said head coach Sean Cotter. “Certainly that went on today. People that were here got to see a great college softball game.”

Should UMass Lowell defeat Southern Connecticut, it will advance to the final on Sunday. With a loss, the River Hawks will meet the Assumption-Caldwell winner Saturday at 4:00.

Senior pitcher Elyssa Boris (Gardner, Mass.) earned the win to improve to 20-8 as she allowed five hits, two walks and one earned run while striking out two. Junior P Kourtney Wilson gave up 10 hits, four earned runs and no walks while striking out three.

Boris also batted 2 for 3 with two RBI.

Sophomore CF Ashley Daniels (Medford, Mass.) opened the seventh inning with a single to deep shortstop and senior SS Meagan Guy (Berlin, Conn.) sent her to second with a sacrifice bunt to set up Darcy's heroics.

UMass Lowell jumped out to a 3-1 lead after two innings as Darcy started the rally with a single and scored when junior 2B Krista MacKenzie (Ipswich, Mass.) doubled to right center. Boris then followed with a single to score MacKenzie.

Caldwell pulled a run back in the bottom half of the inning behind an RBI single by sophomore RF Nicole Velardi.

Boris came through again in the second inning when she singled deep to left field to score Guy, who led off with a single and stole second.

Caldwell leveled matters in the bottom of the fifth when freshman C Alyssa Calderon hit a two-out, two-run double to right center, scoring freshman CF Kristen Knoor and sophomore 1B Jacklyn Bates.

The Cougars weren't finished. Velardi then reached on an error to give Caldwell runners on first and third, but Guy robbed freshman SS Megan Fryday of a base hit when she acrobatically snagged her line drive to prevent at least one run.

“It was Jeter-esque,” Cotter quipped. “Meagan really saved the game at that point with a heck of an athletic play.”

Darcy batted 2 for 4 for UMass Lowell while Daniels hit 2 for 3. Calderon led Caldwell, hitting 2 for 3 while freshman 1B Briana Gaspich went 2 for 4 for the Cougars.

UMass Lowell meets a Southern Connecticut team which swept the season series, 9-1 and 6-1, in New Haven on Apr. 14.

“Southern Connecticut is a mirror image of us, just over the course of the year with better pitching,” Cotter said. “They've owned us. We knew the road was going through Southern Connecticut for the Northeast-10 Tournament. We knew the road was going through here for the Regional. We're excited about playing them in the winners bracket.”