CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Suffolk fell behind early and never caught up as Nichols grabbed the first game of a Conference of New England twinbill Friday afternoon at Briggs Field on the campus of MIT.  

THE BASICS
SCORE: Suffolk 2 | Nichols 10
RECORDS: Suffolk (13-15, 7-5 CNE) | Nichols (26-9, 11-4 CNE) 

HOW IT HAPPENED
Ava Slavinsky singled to right to get the game underway, Riley Chartier laid down a bunt to push her into scoring position before Chloe Steiniger singled to put runners in the corners. A double off Allie Silliman's bat allowed Slavinsky to score easily, but a bobble by the Rams' centerfielder Catherine Carignan let the second Bison run of the day and inning come in to put the host in a 2-0 hole.  

That gap grew two innings later. Steiniger laced a stand-up double to right and Silliman traded places with her with a two-bagger to almost the same exact spot. That caused Megan Cook to go into her pen early as Ashlyn Conleycame in to take over for Cynthia Rucinski. Extra-base hits continued to factor into Nichols' scoring as Bailey Littlefield's double to right plated Silliman and Emily Gour, who walked, to extend the distance to 5-0 through 2.5 frames.

Two hits mixed with a Suffolk error and wild pitch let Nichols lengthen its lead to seven in the top of the fourth.  

The blue-and-gold could not rally around Ella Turnbull's one-out single up the middle in the home half of the to keep a zero on the home side of the board. 

Turnbull came in to take over the circle and held the score still.  

A two-out rally came for the Rams in the bottom of the fifth. With Jolie Quintana on first after wearing a pitch, Carignan roped a single to center. Lily Gustafson followed suit with a single of her own to the outfield that scored Quintana. The ball got away from Nichols' center fielder Chartier, which allowed Carignan to come around and trim the margin to five, 7-2. 

A couple tough hops allowed the Bison to tack on one run in the sixth, before Suffolk and Turnbull escaped a bases loaded jam thanks to a caught fly ball by Diana Rucinski in left to hold the edge at 8-2.  

Nichols started to figure out Turnbull and managed to add two more runs to its advantage to go up 10-2 in the top of the seventh.  

PITCHERS PICTURE

• Cynthia Rucinski took the loss as she gave up four runs, three earned, on six hits and one walk in 2.0 innings. 
• Conley let up three runs, two earned, on three hits and three walks with two punchouts in 2.0 innings. 
• Turnbull put together a three-run, four-hit, five-walk, one-strikeout effort over 3.0 innings.
• Chelsea Indyk earned the decision behind a two-run, one-earned, six-hit, one-walk, three-punchout performance over 7.0 frames.  

STATISCALLY SPEAKING

• Turnbull went 2-for-3. 
• Carignan chipped in two hits and one run. 
• Gustafson recorded one hit and one RBI. 
• Newhall notched one hit. 
• Quintana scored one run.  

WHAT'S NEXT?
Suffolk goes for the doubleheader split with the Bison tonight.