Softball Season Ends With 7-3 Loss at UMass

(Box Score)

5/19/07 -- In a back and forth game that could have gone either way, the Long Island University softball team saw its season come to a close in a 7-3 defeat at the hands of UMass at the Amherst, Mass. Regional on Saturday evening. The Blackbirds end their season with a 34-22 record, the second straight year they have won 34 games.

For the first time in the tournament, Long Island did not score first as UMass took an early lead in the top of the second inning. A triple by Whitney Mollica led off the inning and Amber Acampora drove her home with a single to left field.

The Blackbirds would come back in the bottom half with a run of their own.
Back-to-back doubles to lead off the frame by junior Vanessa Mejia (Roanoke,
Va.) and freshman Raylene Asman (Escondido, Calif.) knotted the score at 1-1.

In the third, the Minutewomen tallied two more runs to take back the lead.
Mollica came up with the big blow, a bases-loaded single to open up a two-run lead.

But Long Island would come back again, scoring one run and nearly tying the game in the bottom half. Senior Randi Gillespie (San Jose, Calif.) singled up the middle with one out and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Junior Brittany Murphy (Los Alamitos, Calif.) followed with a single down the left field long to score Gillespie. Murphy advanced to second on the throw home and to third on an error by the catcher.

Junior Celina Castillo (Bay Area, Calif.) was the next batter and drove a ball to deep right center field that was caught by the right fielder Sam Salato. Murphy tagged and appeared to score the game-tying run, but an appeal play ruled that she had left early and was called out to end the inning.

The score remained at 3-2 until the bottom of the fifth, when freshman Chelsea Martinson (Agoura Hills, Calif.) smashed a solo home run to deep left field, her third of the season, to tie the game.

UMass took back the lead in the next frame as Candice Molinari came up big with a two-out, two-run double to center field. Molinari ended the first game between the two schools with an RBI single in the ninth inning on Friday. The Minutewomen added two more runs in the top of the seventh for insurance, as a single up the middle by Acampora scored two.

Giles suffered the loss, going seven innings while allowing four earned runs and striking out three.