NCAA Tournament Opener – Endicott College Softball Downs RPI 6-3 – Gulls Play Again Friday at Noon

CAMBRIDGE — The Endicott softball team defeated Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), 6-3, in the NCAA Tournament — MIT Regional opening game on Thursday evening at Briggs Field.

WP (15-3): Maria Hanchuk (South Windsor, Conn.) — 5 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 2 K
LP (14-3): Erika Holowka (Forked River, N.J.) — 3 IP, 1 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K
SV (1): Jaylin Couto (Taunton) — 2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K

Raven Comtois (Milford, N.H.) broke open the scoreless contest in the third with a hard-hit two-run double and the Gulls never relinquished the lead the rest of the way.

Christina Nowicki (Chelsea) and Dani Lear (Groveland) both knocked in runs via a fielder’s choice (4th, 3-0 | 5th, 5-1), while Chloe Shapleigh (Lynnfield) added an RBI single in the fifth (4-1) and a run-producing double in the sixth (6-3) to cap the scoring.

Defensively, Chrissy Marotto (Southington, Conn.) turned an unassisted double play on a line out in the fourth to stymie a potential rally for the Engineers.

RPI scored its first run of the contest with a double to make it 3-1 prior to the double play.

BEYOND THE BOX SCORE

• Endicott won the first-ever meeting between the two programs.
• The Gulls pushed their winning streak to 18 straight games.
• Endicott is 8-3 in neutral site games this season.

WHAT’S NEXT

Endicott (36-7) will play the winner of No. 16 MIT/Simmons on Friday, May 19 at 12 PM.

RPI (32-10) will play the loser of the previously mentioned matchup at 2:30 PM.

(Photo Credit – Demetrius Kazanas ’22 M’23)