Teams: Softball: Schedule & Results

COLLEGE SOFTBALL FINAL SCORE
NCAA Tournament Regional Championship
Tufts 10, Coast Guard 1

Game Box Score

BEVERLY -- Tufts University cranked out 15 hits and scored five runs in the top of the seventh as the Jumbos sunk Coast Guard, 10-1, to advance to the 2009 NCAA Division III Softball Championships in Montclair, New Jersey later this week. Tufts, who went a perfect 4-0 at the Beverly, Massachusetts First Round site of competition, improves its overall record to an astonishing 42-1.

The Jumbos will be playing in the NCAA Division III Softball Championships for the second time, including 2000. Coach Cheryl Milligan's team will begin play on the campus of Montclair State University on Friday (May 15). The Jumbos will play Cortland State, the Ithaca Regional champ, in the first round at 4:00 pm. The championship round runs until Monday or Tuesday, if necessary.

Tufts got the game against Coast Guard started by quickly scoring a run in the top of the first inning. Leadoff hitter Laura Chapman (Seattle, WA), who went 3 for 5 on the day, reached on an infield single and then stole second to put herself in scoring position. A Coast Guard error allowed Christy Tinker (Woodbridge, CT) to reach while Chapman moved over to third. An RBI single by senior catcher Cara Hovhanessian (Farmington, CT) plated Chapman to give the Jumbos a 1-0 lead.

The lead moved to 2-0 in the top of the third after two were out. Tufts first-year DH Lena Cantone (Southington, CT) laced a two-out single to centerfield to score senior Maya Ripecky (Chicago, IL), who had singled. Coast Guard did its best to hang tight as the Bears got a run back in the home half of the third off an RBI single up the middle off the bat of Courtney Wolf (Fredericksburg, MD) to cut the lead in half, 2-1.

The Jumbos' bats continued in the fourth and sixth innings. Tufts got a run off singles by junior SS Casey Sullivan (Berlin, CT) and Chapman, and a sacrifice fly to right by senior 2B Danielle Lopez (Danvers, MA) in the fourth. They scored twice in the sixth, to go up 5-1, with a double by senior 3B Samantha Kuhles (Somerville, NJ) and an RBI single from Lopez.

The exclamation point came in the seventh inning as the Jumbos strung together five hits and scored five runs to blow the game wide open en route to the 10-1 win. Sullivan's two-run doubles was the centerpiece of the inning.

Sophomore Izzie Santone (Madison, CT) earned the win in the pitcher's circle, allowing five hits and one run with five strikeouts and one walk. She improved to 19-1. Kuhles (2 for 5, 2 RBI, 1 run), Lopez (1 for 3, 2 RBI), Ripecky (2 for 4, 2 runs), senior LF Roni Herbst (Montclair, NJ) at 3 for 4 with two runs and Sullivan (2 for 3, 2 runs, 2 RBI) all had crooked numbers offensively in the regional championship victory.

For the tournament, Tufts outscored its opponents 39-5 and batted .394 as a team. Coast Guard ends its season at 39-7-1. Lopez, Kuhles, Chapman and Hovhanessian were named to the All-Tournament Team at the Regional.

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