Box Score 
MEDFORD – After six scoreless innings of play in the 2022 New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Softball Championship, the NESCAC West #1 seed Amherst College Mammoths scored one run in the seventh inning to defeat the NESCAC East #1 seed Tufts University 1-0 and claim their first NESCAC Championship in program history.
Tufts (32-10, 11-1 NESCAC East) entered the tournament as the two-time defending NESCAC champions, winning in 2021 and 2019 while Amherst (24-7, 9-3 NESCAC West) had only appeared in the championship game one other time in program history, falling to Williams in 2017.
Both pitchers pitched complete games for their teams, each allowing six hits. Amherst pitcher Dani Torres Werra finished with seven strikeouts in the shutout win, while Tufts' Sophia DiCocco struck out eight batters and allowed just one earned run in the seventh inning. Neither team had a player with multiple hits in the ball game.
Amherst had the first scoring opportunity right out of the gate as leadoff hitter Megan Taketa singled to begin the game. She advanced to second on a groundout, but DiCocco retired two of the next three Mammoth batters to get out of the inning unharmed. Tufts followed that up with a runner in scoring position in the bottom half of the first as Michelle Adelman singled and stole second, but the Jumbos were unable to drive her in. Randi Finkelstein reached third base in the second for Amherst after getting hit by a pitch but was unable to cross the plate.
The Jumbos had two scoring chances on Rachel Moore and Bela Jimenez lead-off doubles throughout the next five innings and DiCocco allowed just three hits and no runs in that same span to keep Tufts in the game and bring it to the seventh inning at a 0-0 tie.
The top of the seventh began with three consecutive Amherst bunt attempts as Talia Bloxham bunt singled and advanced to second base on a Taketa sacrifice bunt in the next at-bat. Bloxham reached third on a wild pitch and Rachel Lovejoy followed that up with the game-winning rbi on a bunt back to the pitcher, squeezing home Bloxham, who slid under the tag for the only run of the game.
DiCocco entered the game as a hitter in the bottom of the seventh inning and hit a deep one-out double off the right center field wall, becoming the potential tying run before Sadie Pool made the win-clinching play at third base for the Mammoths, catching a hard-hit line drive and doubling off DiCocco at second base to clinch the 1-0 victory for Amherst.
Written by Tim O'Brien, Athletic Communications Intern
