BALTIMORE, Md. – Despite forcing three and a half scoreless innings, the No. 4 seeded UMass Lowell softball team (13-17) fell, 3-0, against top-seeded UMBC (23-11) to open the 2021 America East Championship on Thursday afternoon.
With the decision, the River Hawks will move on in the double elimination tournament to square off against the loser of today's UAlbany vs. Stony Brook contest on Friday, May 14. First pitch for that elimination game is slated for 1:30 p.m.
"It was a well-fought battle," said Head Coach
Danielle Henderson. "We just needed to score some runs, but we played hard the entire game."
Graduate student
Jennifer Lee (Woburn, Mass.) and senior
Olivia Labbe (Rochester, Mass.) recorded the lone hits on the day for UMass Lowell. Senior
Courtney Cashman (Danvers, Mass.) finished the contest without a recorded at-bat after drawing three consecutive walks.
Sophomore pitcher
Ryley White (Wareham, Mass.) moved to 8-3 on the season, throwing the first 4.1 innings with four strikeouts. Senior
Lovina Capria (Deltona, Fla.) came on in relief to close out the game and hold the Retrievers scoreless in the last 1.2 innings.
Both sides left a runner on base in the first and were retired in order in the second. The Retrievers made noise in the bottom of the third, but the River Hawks turned a heads-up double play, catching the lead runner trying to take an extra base on a sacrifice attempt to end the inning and keep the 0-0 stalemate intact.
However, UMBC broke open the scoring in the fourth when Madison Wilson plated the game's first run with a single that squeaked through the left side. Shanel Stott then roped a RBI triple to left to give the home squad a 2-0 edge.
Lee sent a ball deep into the hole at short to lead off the fifth with the River Hawks' first hit of the contest. Labbe followed with a base hit to left center and Cashman worked the count full before drawing her third free pass of the day to load the bases. Coppersmith would force a strikeout, though, to end the inning and keep the visitors off the board.
In the home half of the inning, Sierra Pierce drew a bases-loaded walk to extend the difference to 3-0. The River Hawks would then go 1-2-3 in each of their final two trips to the dish to close out the contest.
