Box Score 
WILLIAMSTOWN - Junior pitcher Allyson Fournier lost a no-hitter in the seventh inning and senior DP Jo Clair drove home four runs as the eight-time NESCAC champion Tufts softball team opened 2014 conference tournament action with a 7-0 win over Middlebury at Williams College's Cole Field on Friday.
The Jumbos (35-3) advance to play a winner's bracket game on Saturday at 12:30 pm against host Williams (23-9), which defeated Bowdoin, 6-0, in Friday's other opening-round game. Middlebury (18-15) will face Bowdoin (24-13) in an elimination game on Saturday at 10 am. Play continues later on Saturday and into Sunday.
Fournier, who improved to 17-0 in the pitcher's circle, walked the first batter she faced and then retired 18 Panthers in a row. Middlebury's Jackie Stern led off the seventh with a single to left-center ending the no-hitter. Fournier struck out nine in her 11th shutout of the season.
Tufts scored in the first inning off Panther starter Elizabeth Morris. Lead-off batter Michelle Cooprider reached on an error and scored on Clair's double to right-center. The Jumbos would have plenty of base-runners in the second and third, but Morris kept the margin at 1-0.
The Jumbos would take control of the game with five unearned runs in the fourth to pull ahead 6-0. Clair and first-year Cassie Ruscz had back-to-back two-rbi hits in the inning. Doubles by Cooprider and Clair plated the final Jumbo run in the sixth off Panther reliever Kat Maehr.
Tufts had 12 hits in the game, led by three from Clair and two each by senior catcher Chrissie Massrey, junior 3B Bri Keenan and sophomore SS Christina Raso. Cooprider scored three runs.
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