NEW LONDON, Conn. – Elms College captured its first-ever New England Collegiate Conference Softball Championship on Saturday afternoon, defeating Becker College by a 1-0 final in the title round at Alumni Field.
The second-seeded Blazers went 4-0 in the Championship to earn the program's fourth NCAA Championship berth and first since 2007. Elms will learn its NCAA opponent and destination when the field is announced on the Division III selection show (NCAA.com) on Monday, May 4 at 10 a.m.
Senior Bethany Grimes (Terryville, Conn./Terryville) was the winning pitcher in all four Elms victories and was named the tournament's most valuable player. Joining Grimes on the NECC All-Tournament Team were teammates Kierstan Skinner and Meghan Shewchuk; Becker's Kelsey Norberg, Megan Bolduc and Brianna Herforth; Newbury College's Olivia Kenyon and Emily Humphries; and Mitchell College's Samantha DelConte and Brittany Fiederlein.
Third-seeded Becker advanced to the title round with a 5-0 win over fourth-seeded Newbury earlier in the day. The Hawks went 3-2 in the Championship with both losses coming to Elms.
Game 1 – Becker 5, Newbury 0
Doubles by Wheelahan and Brochu gave Becker a 1-0 lead right out of the gate. Wheelahan doubled to deep center and, after moving to third on a ground out, scored on Brochu's line drive through the right side of the infield that rolled all the way to the fence.
Newbury put runners on second and third with no outs in the second but came away with nothing. Norberg retired three straight batters to keep the one-run lead intact, getting a pop up and two strikeouts to escape trouble.
Brianna Herforth (Peru, Mass./Wahconah Regional) led off the Becker third with a double to the base of the fence in left. The Hawks moved her to third with a sacrifice bunt and she scored on a single through the left side by Megan Bolduc (Dover, N.H./Dover). Brochu followed with a RBI single into shallow left-center to pad the lead to 3-0.
The Hawks tacked on two more runs in the fourth to make it a 5-0 game. Jaclyn Orangio (Maynard, Mass./Assabet Valley) knocked in a runner from third with a ground ball to the right side, and Wheelahan crushed a double to left that brought home another.
The five-run cushion was more than enough for Norberg, who continued to work out of trouble in the late innings. Newbury put two runners in scoring position with two outs in the sixth but couldn't cash in. In the seventh, the Nighthawks stranded a runner at second base as Norberg got a game-ending ground ball to send her team to the title round.
Wheelahan went 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles and scored two runs while Brochu also doubled and finished with two RBI. Bolduc and Herforth added a pair of hits each.
Alyssa Donovan (West Haven, Conn./Platt Technical), Olivia Kenyon (Canton, Mass./Canton) and Lindsey Clark (Venice, Fla./River Dell Regional) all recorded hits for the Nighthawks. Kenyon went the distance inside the circle and yielded five runs on 12 hits and struck out five.
Game 2 – Elms 1, Becker 0
Elms scored the only run it would need in the second inning. Elizabeth Olszewski (Griwold, Conn./Griswold) led off with a double off the base of the fence in the left field corner, and Rachel Beery (Springfield, Mass./Cathedral) followed by ripping a double off the third-base bag to plate the run.
Becker appeared to have something cooking in the bottom of the third. With a runner on first, Orangio laid down a bunt and collided with the first baseman on her way to the bag. The play left the Hawks with runners at the corners with only one out, but a conference by the umpires ruled that Orangio was out due to interference and placed the runner back on first. Grimes then got a ground ball to end the inning with the 1-0 lead still in hand.
The Hawks put two on with one out in the fifth but couldn't take advantage. Grimes struck out the final two batters of the frame to keep Becker off the scoreboard. She then set the side down in order in both the sixth and seventh innings to lock down the win.
Bolduc and Rebecca Carkhuff (Amherst, Mass./Amherst) each singled on the day for Becker. Norberg gave up the lone run on five hits and struck out seven over 7.0 innings.
