Senior Sweep! Softball Scuttles Maritime, 11-3, 10-3 in Twin Bill

WESTFIELD, Mass. –  Westfield State University softball celebrated senior day with a sweep of MASCAC rival Massachusetts Maritime Academy, but it was junior OF/C Kassidy LaTour who stole the show, finishing the doubleheader with six hits in seven at bats, hitting for the cycle in the doubleheader with seven RBI and five runs scored.

Westfield State, ranked 25^th in the most recent NFCA poll and ninth in the NCAA NPI rankings, improves to 29-1 on the season and 11-1 in the MASCAC.    Mass Maritime slips to 10-17 on the season and 3-11 in the league.

SENIOR DAY PHOTOS ON OUR SMUGMUG PAGE

Westfield scored an 11-3 run-rule win in the opener, as LaTour was 2-3 with a double, a sacrifice fly and three runs batted in.

Westfield did most of its damage in the third inning getting four doubles in he inning from Hannah Wodecki, LaTour, Allyssa Slack and MacKenzie Mike to post a five-run inning.    Westfield pushed across three runs in the bottom of the sixth to bring the run rule into effect, getting an RBI single from Rylie Camacho and another RBI single from LaTour to end the game.

Owls sophomore starter Angelina Vartuli (W, 11-0) tossed a complete game while allowing six hits and three runs, and striking out three.  Vartuli snagged her fourth win in five days and fifth in seven days.

Camacho reached base four times and scored three runs, Wodecki finished 4-4 with a double, triple and three RBI.  Wodecki's fourth hit of the game was the 200th of her collegiate career, spanning one year at D2 Franklin Pierce and three with the Owls.

Starter Jennamarie Klemp (L, 7-9) went the distance in the circle for the Buccaneers, in taking the loss.  Hannah Burton had a pair of hits, including a double.  Sarah Holler drove in two runs with a groundout and a sacrifice fly.

In the nightcap, a 10-3 Owls win, Westfield grabbed a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning and held the Buccaneers at arm's length throughout.   LaTour lofted a 3-run home run that just cleared the fence in the leftfield corner on a high fly ball that initially looked to be playable, but MMA LF Ryliegh Ward ran out of room on the warning track as the ball dropped into the treeline for a 3-0 lead.   Rookie DP Reagan Salvatore added an RBI single later in the inning.

Westfield got three in the bottom of the sixth, with pinch hitter Lily Dionne driving in a pair with a pinch-hit single.

LaTour finished 4-4 with four rbi and four runs scored, a triple and the home run. 

Mass Maritime scored two in the third with a 2-run single from Holler, but later in the inning Westfield's Rylie Camacho threw out Holler on a play at the plate after Ward singled, keeping the Owls lead intact at 6-2 and ending a potential big inning for the Bucs.

A'bc'de Patane laced a solo home run to center field to lead odd the sixth, bit the was the final run of the day for MMA.    Patane finished 2-4 with a double, home run and two runs scored.   Ward, Alexis LeBlanc and Reagan Kerecz each had a pair of hits for the Buccaneers.

Starter Ashleigh Catlett (L, 3-8) worked just two innings in absorbing the pitching loss.

Westfield's Joss Mettey (W, 9-1) spun a complete game, working around trouble on several occasions, allowing 11 hits but no walks while striking out four.

After the game, Westfield State honored it's five seniors – Mike, Wodecki, Mia Alfonso, Ella Malanson and Sarah Hough.  That quintet has never won less than 24 games in a season at Westfield, set a program record with 32 wins last season, opened this season with a 26 game winning streak, and have a four-year combined record of 113 wins against 43 losses and one tie, winning more than 71 percent of their games, and winning two MASCAC Regular season titles so far their careers.    Hough, Wodecki and Alfonso are re-writing the Owls season and career batting records on a near-daily basis, powering an offense that leads the nation at just over 10 runs per game.

Westfield will close out a four-series homestand on Wednesday, hosting Wesleyan (Conn.) in a doubleheader at Sullivan Field with a 3:00 p.m. start time.