April 1, 2010

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA - The La Salle softball team dropped both ends of a doubleheader to 23rd-ranked Massachusetts on Thursday. UMass took the first game, 8-1, before a 10-0 five-inning decision in the nightcap.

The Explorers put a run on the board in the sixth inning of the first game. Liz Reed reached base when she was hit by a pitch as the leadoff batter. Gina Massaro followed up with a bunt single, a short blooper toward the third base side that perplexed the Minutewomen and got Massaro on base. One out later, Mary Pat Conville ripped a shot to the center field fence to score Reed.

UMass scored one in the top of the first, which proved the winning run.

Massaro went the distance, giving up eight runs on 11 hits, striking out five and issuing five walks. UMass ace Sara Plourde went six innings, giving up one run on two hits, striking out 14 and issuing two walks.

With a 3-0 lead going into the third inning of the second game, UMass exploded for seven runs in the top of the third.

Erica Vile and Laura Gallagher both singled in the fifth inning to put a runner in scoring position. Vile singled to third base to lead off the inning and advanced to second when Gallagher laid down a bunt single.

Laura Beth McCreesh earned the start for the Explorers, working 2.1 innings before DJ Guinn came in on relief for the final 2.2 innings of play. Plourde pitched both games, going four innings in the second and striking out eight, while Bailey Sanders pitched the fifth inning. After giving up two hits, Sanders struck out three.

The Explorers return to West Campus Field on Saturday for an Atlantic 10 doubleheader with Rhode Island, starting at noon.