On the opening day of the NESCAC Softball Championship at Bowdoin's Pickard Diamond in Brunswick, Maine, top-seeded Tufts earned a 12-1 run-rule victory over No. 8 Wesleyan, and No. 2 Middlebury pulled out a 3-2 extra-innings victory over No. 7 Bates.
No. 1 Tufts def. No. 8 Wesleyan, 12-1 (5 inn.) | Box Score
Lauryn Horita homered and drove in four runs, Paige Murphy added a home run and three RBI, and Tufts cruised past Wesleyan, 12-1, in five innings.
Avery Kanouse was dominant in the circle for the Jumbos, improving to 12-3 by allowing just one earned run on four hits with three strikeouts over five innings.
Tufts broke the game open with a six-run third inning that chased Wesleyan starter Ella DeCrescenzo, after surrendering seven earned runs in two innings. Murphy's solo home run to lead off the third extended Tufts' advantage to 4-1 before Mack Seibel's two-run single and Murphy's two-run single later in the inning blew the game open.
Horita's two-run blast came in the second inning and broke a 1-1 tie. She added a two-run double in the fourth as Tufts finished with 13 hits.
Nicole Celi's RBI double in the second accounted for Wesleyan's lone run.
No. 2 Middlebury def. No. 7 Bates 3-2 (8 inn.) | Box Score
Emily Dowd pitched six innings of one-run ball in relief and Kristyn Carroll delivered the go-ahead RBI single in the eighth inning as Middlebury edged Bates 3-2.
Dowd, who improved to 12-1, allowed four hits and struck out six after entering in the third inning. The rookie held Bates scoreless over her six frames to preserve the narrow victory.
Bates jumped ahead 2-1 in the fourth when Emily Kennedy singled down the right-field line to score Emma Yen, her second RBI of the game. Kennedy finished 2-for-3 with both of the Bobcats' runs batted in.
Middlebury tied it in the seventh on Carroll's run-scoring single, then won it in the eighth when Olivia Scholes singled to right-center to plate Jen Westphal. Sarah LaFond went 3-for-4 to pace the Panthers' 12-hit attack.
Isabella Albro took the loss for Bates.
