Softball Seniors Seal Career with Sweep of Pace Sunday
NORTH ANDOVER, MA – With a 13-3 and 10-9 win over Pace
University on Sunday, the Merrimack College softball team (17-26)
sent off four seniors with a smile on Volpe Field despite falling
short of a second straight trip to the Northeast-10 postseason.
Seniors Atlee Cahill
(Gloucester, MA), Casey Conetta
(Darien, CT), Emily Cummings
(Andover, MA) and Jill Bradford
(Stoneham, MA) were honored in between the two games on
Volpe Field for their illustrious careers in North Andover.
Entering the doubleheader, the quartet had combined for an even 200
hits in their career and added 12 on Sunday, including seven from
Conetta who was battling with an injury that held her out of
Saturday's doubleheader.
In game one, the Warriors scored at least two runs in all four
innings they went to the plate in the 13-3, five-inning mercy-rule
win.
Merrimack tallied 15 hits in the opener and reached a
season-high with 13 runs scored. The 23 runs on the day is
the most the Warriors have scored all year in a twin bill and the
first time in 2010 they reached double digits in both contests.
The Warriors best inning offensively was the third when
sophomore Monique
Gosselin (Lawrence, MA) scored the final two runs (of
six) with her ninth home run of the season to score junior
Jamie
Millett (Hudson, MA). Millett also had a day of
her own, going 6-for-6 with six RBIs and a trio of doubles.
She also stole a base in game one.
Conetta went 3-for-3 in game one and drove in four runs,
including a two-run homer in the fourth to seal the deal.
The senior Cahill captured her seventh win of the season while
allowing just four hits and striking out as many in five innings.
In game two, the Warriors scored seven runs in the first inning
thanks in large part to a three-run bomb from junior catcher Kara Melillo (North
Andover, MA). Later in the inning, Conetta, Millett
and sophomore Amanda Zanni
(Reading, MA) each hit an RBI double to give Merrimack a 7-1 lead
at the end of one.
The Setters fought back though, with three runs in the second,
two in the fourth and three in the seventh. The Warriors had
built just enough of a cushion with 10 runs having scored two more
in the third and another in the fifth on an RBI double from
Millett. Millett—like Conetta in game two—went
4-for-4 at the plate with two doubles and two singles.
Despite being out-hit 15-13, the Warriors found a way to win
game two, 10-9, and send off the seniors in their final game with a
clean sweep of Pace.
Pitching by committee in game two, Cahill started and finished
the game, but sophomore Alex Gallant
(Salem, NH) and freshman Kelli Jo
Deardorff (Bedford, MA) pitched two-plus innings each
of relief to help the senior get her eighth win of the year and
15th of her career. Cahill also ended her career
Sunday with a 3.78 ERA over 241 innings pitched and 92 strikeouts.
"I love our seniors," said Schwager. "They played like
seniors today and I couldn't be more proud of them."
