GLASSBORO, NJ (May 17, 2025) – The Tufts University softball team lost twice today at the NCAA Regional to see its 2025 season come to an end.
The Jumbos fell 3-2 in Saturday's first action, a continuation of Game 3 of the Regional that was suspended due to weather yesterday. That put Tufts in an elimination game against Cortland this afternoon, and the Jumbos lost 9-2.
The Tufts season ends with a 29-15 record, and was highlighted by the team winning the NESCAC title and earning the Jumbo program's 23rd NCAA Tournament berth.
NCAA Regional Game 3 – Rowan 3, Tufts 2
Regional host Rowan, the #4 team in the NFCA national poll now with a 45-2 record, scored single runs in the third and fourth innings to take the lead, then held on for a 3-2 win over the Jumbos (29-14) in the winner's bracket game.
Facing Rowan senior pitcher Rylee Lutz, who ranks third nationally with 10 shutouts this season, the Jumbos – playing as the home team – had a 2-1 lead.
Bela Jimenez led off the bottom of the first with a walk and
Kaitlyn Perucci followed with a single. After
Haley Leimbach sacrificed both over a base,
Heaven Oliva hammered a two-run double to right-center.
Rowan had scored in the top of the first. McKenzie Melvin earned a one-out walk and after ground-ball out she scored on a single to center by Abigail Pawlowski.
At the end of the second inning, the game went into a weather delay and it wouldn't restart until 24 hours later due to torrential rain and storms in the area on Friday.
When the game restarted around 11:30 AM on Saturday, Rowan tied the score in the top of the third. Payton MacNair doubled home Melvin, who had reached by fielder's choice.
Returning to the circle after the delay, Lutz would not allow another Jumbo run. However, Tufts often had base runners and could not capitalize. In the bottom of the third, Leimbach singled and
Keriann Slayton doubled. However, Lutz got a pop-up to strand the runners.
The Profs went ahead 3-2 in their fourth. Kate Evick and Holly Markus hit back-to-back singles to start the inning and were sacrificed to second and third. With two outs Evick came home on what was scored a Jumbo infield error.
Tufts went to the bullpen for
Lacy Chilek in the top of the fourth and she was excellent again. In the sixth she stranded runners on second and third with two outs, winning a 10-pitch battle with Melvin by getting a ground ball to third.
In the bottom of the seventh, down to their final three outs, Tufts'
Madi Sewell reached when she topped a ball out in front of the plate and beat the throw. Rowan brought in All-American Emily McCutcheon to pitch, and she was able to retire the next two Jumbos and save the win for the Profs.
Lutz earned her 20th victory of the season for Rowan, allowing eight hits and the two runs in 6.1 innings. Liz McCaffery had two hits and Melvin scored twice for the Profs.
Sewell finished with two hits for the Jumbos.
Sophia DiCocco took the pitching loss after giving up six hits and two earned runs in 3.2 innings. Chilek allowed one hit and no runs in 3.1 innings of relief.
Tufts dropped into the loser's bracket with the defeat. They would play either Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute or SUNY Cortland in Game 5 of the tournament later on Saturday (see recap below).
NCAA Regional Game 5 – Cortland 9, Tufts 2
The Red Dragons (25-15) had 14 hits off three Tufts pitchers, while first-year pitcher Gianna Endieveri quieted the Jumbo offense with a complete-game victory.
The victory for Cortland ends Tufts' season while earning the Red Dragons a spot in the Regional finals against host Rowan University tomorrow. Cortland will need to defeat the Profs twice to advance to the NCAA Super Regionals next week.
Cortland scored in five of their six innings at-bat against the Jumbos, including the first. They took a 1-0 lead when Halle Wright led off with a single, Laila Smith followed with a single and then Shelby LaMont scored Wright with a two-out base hit up the middle.
Tufts, playing as the visiting team, would take a 2-1 lead in the top of the third.
Heaven Oliva cranked a two-run double to center scoring Jimenez and Leimbach, who had both singled.
The Red Dragons regained the lead quickly though, scoring twice in the bottom of the third after two were out. A single by Maggie Cummings, an rbi double from McKenna Barry and a run-scoring single from LaMont made it 3-2 Cortland.
After Tufts scored in the third, Endieveri shut them down for the remainder of the game. She retired 13 of the final 14 batters she faced.
Cortland padded its lead with three in the fourth, one in the fifth and two in the sixth. They loaded the bases with no outs in the fourth and had a two-run double by Smith and an rbi single by Cummings. A two-out triple by Kaeli McAnally and a Jumbo error scored the run in the fifth. Doubles by Wright and LaMont along with another Tufts error resulted in the two sixth-inning runs.
Endieveri finished off the win with a 1-2-3 seventh. She allowed six hits and two runs while improving to 10-5 in the circle. A strong day for the top of the Cortland batting order included a 3 for 4 with three rbis performance from LaMont, a 3 for 4 with three runs game for Wright, two hits and two rbis from Smith and two hits and a run and rbi for Cummings.
Jimenez had a pair of hits atop the Tufts order. Chilek took the pitching loss, her first of the season, allowing six hits and three runs in 2.2 innings.
--JUMBOS--
