Rams Top Owls In MASCAC Quarterfinal, Owls to Play at 12:30 Saturday in Elimination Game

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. – Gewn Carpenter hit a 2-run home run to fuel a big third inning for #1 Framingham state, as the Rams blanked #4Westfield State  8-0 in the quarterfinal round of the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference softball tournament at Framingham State's Maple Street Field.

With the win, Framingham (30-11) advances to tomorrow's 10 a.m. game against #2 Bridgewater State in the winners' bracket.  All the remaining games in the tournament will be played at Framingham State's Maple Street Field.

With the loss, Westfield (23-17) advances to tomorrow's 12:30 p.m. elimination game against #3 Worcester State in the losers' bracket.    (The full tournament schedule is available at https://framingham.prestosports.com/gameday/sball/23sballmascac/index .)

Bridgewater rallied in the bottom of the seventh inning for a 3-2 win over Worcester in the other quarterfinal game today.

Framingham played small ball to get the first run of the day in the first inning, with Brooke Grassia reaching on a single to right, stealing second, advancing to third on a sacrifice bunt from Makayla Rooney, and scoring from third on Camille Desrochers sac fly to right.

The Rams got to Owls starter Gianna Conte (L, 5-8) in the bottom of the third inning.  Angie Lynch led off with a double, Grassia followed with a single through the left side, and Rooney singled up the middle through the drawn in infield to score Lynch.  Desrochers followed with a double in the gap to left center to drive in a pair of runs for a 4-0 Rams lead.

Westfield went to the bullpen and brought in Stephanie Scoville, who was promply greeted by Carpenter's towering shot to left field, giving the Rams a 6-0 lead before Scoville was able to strike out the side to end the third inning.

Framingham tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the fourth, aided by a pair of Owls errors on one play that allowed Lynch and Deroschers to score to give the Rams an 8-0 lead.

Westfield got base hits from Janna Jose and Meghan Doyle in the top of the fifth, as the Owls tried to rally for a run to prevent the 8-run rule, but Rams starter Ally Moran got the final two outs to secure the win

Moran (W, 18-5) allowed just three hits and one walk.  Conte took the loss after allowing five earned runs in 2+ innings of work

Grassia, Rooney and Lynch each had a pair of hits for the Rams.