LONGMEADOW, Mass. – The Wentworth Institute of Technology softball team erupted for 29 runs on 34 hits as the Leopards swept Bay Path in its final non-conference doubleheader of the season. The Leopards took the first game 9-4 and the nightcap 20-14.
With the wins Wentworth improves to 4-18 while the Wildcats fall to 4-15.
Game one saw the hosts take a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning when Frankie Wauneka scored as a result of an error. The Leopards put two on the board in the top of the third when junior Karsyn Sawyer (Chatham, N.Y.) had an RBI triple and came in to score on a junior Heather Pinkston (Concord, Calif.) single.
An inning later Wentworth put up three runs when freshman Megan Berryman (Middleboro, Mass.) and senior Sam Curran (Quincy, Mass.) had back-to-back RBI doubles and Pinkston has an RBI single. In the fifth inning Wentworth took a 9-1 lead, thanks I part to three Wildcat errors and an RBI double from senior Liz Glavin (Ipswich, Mass.).
Bay Path made it 9-4 in the bottom of the fifth on a three-run home run from Lauren Vallee.
Pinkston earned the win, pitching five innings and allowing four runs (three earned) on five hits and struck out three. Curran pitched the final two innings, allowing zero runs on two hits. Offensively Curran was 4-for-5 while Glavin drove in two runs.
A wild game two saw the two teams combine for 34 runs and 31 hits while combining to commit 14 errors. The Leopards got on the board in the first inning, pushing four runs across. Freshman Vanessa Weymouth (Fremont, N.H.) reached on an error which scored Curran, Berryman had an RBI groundout, Pinkston had an RBI single, and senior Anne Harris (Germantown, Md.) had an RBI double.
Wentworth made it a 6-0 game in the second on a two-run single from Berryman. Bay Path countered with two of its own in the bottom of the inning on a two-run single from Gretchen Hale.
The fourth inning saw Wentworth score three times with a Berryman triple and a pair of errors accounting for the runs. In the home half of the inning the Wildcats scored twice to make it 9-4 when Casey Botelho had a two-run single.
Over the next two innings the teams would score 10 runs apiece, making it a 19-14 game. In the fifth inning Wentworth scored four times with Berryman driving in two runs and Glavin and sophomore Marina MacDonald Soccorso (Avon, Conn.) driving in a run each. Bay Path scored seven times in the bottom of the inning, highlighted by a two-run single from Anna Meyer. Wentworth put up six runs in the sixth, using five runs and three errors to increase its lead, while the Wildcats scored three in the bottom of the inning.
Wentworth tacked on a run in the top of the seventh when MacDonald-Soccorso had an RBI single.
Junior Siobhan Baker (South Portland, Maine) picked up her first collegiate victory after pitching 4.1 innings and striking out three batters while Curran pitched the final 2.2 innings. Berryman was 4-for-4 with seven RBI while Glavin (four hits) and Pinkston (three hits) helped pace an offense that belted out 18 hits.
Wentworth is at Nichols on Saturday.