Softball Walks Off Against Lesley in Game 1, 7-6

EAST BOSTON– Suffolk softball overcame a one-run deficit in the bottom of the seventh and secured a walk-off comeback over Lesley, 7-6, to open the two-game series with the Lynx Tuesday afternoon at East Boston Memorial Park.  

THE BASICS
SCORE: Suffolk 7 | Lesley 6
RECORDS: Suffolk (8-9) | Lesley (12-7)  

HOW IT HAPPENED
Suffolk's scoring came in the second behind a pair of hits and a costly Lynx error, that came in the beginning of the frame on McKenzie McGrath's lead-off at bat. McGrath moved two second after Bianca Luciano took a pitch off the helmet and Caitlin Murphy drew a base on balls to put all the ducks in the pond. With speed on the bags,Grace Boehler's singled to right plated two runs. Two batters later, Jaclyn Flint brought the other two runners in on a double to make it a 4-0 Suffolk score early on.  

Kennedy Reyes managed to keep the Lynx bat until the top of the fifth when Jordan Raab cleared the two runners off the bases with a stand-up double down the leftfield line to slice Suffolk's lead in half, 4-2. 

A Rams' response came in the home half of the inning with a double off Brooke Cloak's bat. The freshman had pinch runner Karina Bua, waiting on first and sent the ball to the rolling to the right field fence, allowing the pinch runner to round the bases. Bua replaced Kelly Keane on the bags after the first baseman knocked a base hit.  

Reyes and the Rams found themselves in a jam in the top of the sixth. In a first and third situation, Ashley Zulla threw down the runner headed to second for the final out of the frame, but Flint missed the throw, which allowed the runner on third to come home. A walk put two runners on and Riley Picket sent a shot to centerfielder to clear the bags and flip the script in the Lesley's favor, 6-5. 

Suffolk set-up its comeback with back-to-back base hits in the bottom of the seventh before the Lynx made a change in the circle. After the pitching change, an error by Lesley allowed the tying run in Zulla come in and put Keane on a second. Keane took advantage of an erratic pitch to take third and easily ran in thanks to Brianna Loughlin's single to first.  

PITCHERS PICTURE

• Reyes' day finished two-thirds of the way through the sixth. The freshman allowed just two earned runs on seven hits and two walks with four strikeouts, two looking. 
• Hannah DelCervo picked up the victory behind 1.1 innings of scoreless action. She gave up just one walk and fanned one. 
• Jordan Day suffered the setback and dipped to 5-4 on the season despite fanning nine hitters. In 6.0 innings, she gave up seven runs, two earned, on nine hits and one walk. 
• Kara Hagga came out of the pen for the Lynx and allowed one hit.  

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

• Flint led the way at the dish with a 3-for-4 effort with one double for two RBI. 
• Boehler recorded a multi-hit day as well with two hits, two RBI, one run and two stolen bases.  
• Loughlin's only hit of the day as a pinch hitter proved to be the most important in brought in one RBI. 
• Zulla and Keane both put together a one-hit, one-run effort. 
• Muprhy,Bua, McGrath and Luciano all scored once.  

NOTEWORTHY

• Suffolk improves to 10-1 all-time versus Lesley. 
• The Rams remain unbeaten all-time against the Lynx in the Jaclyn Davis era. 
• Cockroft connected for her first double of season and second of her career. 
• Cloak produced her first extra-base hit of the year and of her collegiate career. 
• Boehler had a career-high two stolen bases.  

POST-GAME PIC
  

COMING UP
Suffolk and Lesley will conclude the two-game series under the lights in Eastie tonight.