Box Score MEDFORD - Senior Allyson Fournier pitched the 15th no-hitter of her career in game one and junior Erica County allowed two runs in the nightcap as the #1 ranked Tufts Softball team improved to 31-0 with a double-header sweep of Endicott College Wednesday at Spicer Field.
Tufts won the first game 5-0 and took the second game 4-2. They broke a 2-2 tie in game two scoring twice in the fourth inning. Endicott fell below .500 to 15-16 with the losses.
Fournier nearly threw her seventh perfect game in the opener. She hit pinch hitter Casie Beauchemin with a pitch leading off the sixth. Otherwise she was perfect with 18 strikeouts. She struck out 14 of the first 15 batters she faced.
With the wind howling on an otherwise nice day at Spicer, Tufts scored four runs in the third inning. After sophomore CF Carrie Copacino flared a double to left, junior 2B Christina Raso brought her home with a double to the base of the fence in left-center. A single by Bri Keenan and a hit by pitch to Raven Fournier loaded the bases.
In one of the more interesting plays you'll see scored this year, DP Shelby Lipson hit what looked like a fly ball to right. Instead, the wind took hold of the ball and blew it back into the infield where it dropped. However, the infield fly rule was called. Lipson was out, but she did get a P4 rbi as Raso scored and Keenan took third. A deep fly ball to left by sophomore 3B Marissa Heyer that also was affected by the wind led to a two-run error making it 4-0.
Raso came up with her second rbi of the game when she singled home senior RF Stephanie Tercero in the sixth. Raso finished 2 for 4 with the two rbis and a run and Tercero was 2 for 3 with the run. Copacino had three hits and a run.
Endicott out-hit Tufts 9-5 in game two, but County was able to pitch out of trouble. The Gulls stranded seven runners on base including five in scoring position.
Tufts took an early 2-0 lead when senior CF Michelle Cooprider hit her first home run of the season in the first, scoring Keenan who had reached by fielder's choice.
Endicott's Julia McNeill was thrown out at the plate by Cooprider trying to score the Gulls' first run of the day in the third. However, sophomore Lindsee Allienello would come through for the visitors with a two-run single tying the game at 2-2 later in the inning. Beauchemin and Emily Hoffman both scored after each had singled.
The Jumbos answered in the fourth as sophomore 1B Cassie Ruscz led off with a walk and senior RF Gracie Marshall followed with a single down the left-field line. First-year Raina Galbiati singled home Ruscz for a 3-2 lead and Tercero's sacrifice fly to center plated Marshall for a 4-2 advantage.
Endicott would get runners in scoring position in the fourth, fifth and sixth, but County was able to keep them at bay. She allowed nine hits and two runs with three strikouts and two walks while improving to 12-0.
Leigh Wyman took the loss for Endicott, allowing five hits and four runs with three walks in six innings. Allienello had two hits to go with the two rbis and first-year RF Danielle Stratton also had two hits.
The Jumbos return to Spicer tomorrow for a pair against Rhode Island College starting at 3. The Gulls are in Commonwealth Coast Conference action versus Roger Williams on Friday.
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