LEWISTON, ME (May 3, 2025) - The Tufts University softball team earned the #1 seed in NESCAC with a 13-0 victory in Game 1 (five innings) at Bates College on Saturday. The Jumbos then took the double-header sweep with a 9-1 final over the Bobcats in Game 2.
Tufts will host the 2025 NESCAC Championship Tournament at Spicer Field next Friday through Sunday (May 9-11). This is the fourth straight year that the Jumbos will host the tournament. Tufts will be the site of the NESCAC Tournament for the 11th time overall.
Today at Bates the Jumbos scored 22 runs with 24 hits, while allowing one run and seven hits. They hit four home runs in the double-header.
Game 1 - Tufts 13, Bates 0 (5 inn.)
Heaven Oliva cranked two home runs and
Kaitlyn Perucci also hit one to help power the Jumbos to a run-rule victory.
In the circle, Tufts'
Sophia DiCocco gave up a lead-off single to Bates' Emma Yen on a ball that came back at her quickly. DiCocco would not give up another hit until the fifth inning, and soon after that finished off a two-hit shutout.
Oliva got the Jumbo bats started with a home run to lead off the top of the second. In the third, a walk by
Fallon O'Connor and single by
Bela Jimenez led to a three-run homer by Perucci for a 4-0 Jumbo lead.
A four-run fourth-inning highlighted by an rbi double from O'Connor and a run-scoring single by
Cat Kawabe put Tufts on top 8-0.
The Jumbos would add five more in the fifth, as Oliva blasted a two-run bomb - her ninth of the season - and O'Connnor would later add a a two-run single. Pinch-hitter
Abby Chau, in her first at-bat of the year, capped the scoring with an rbi single.
Oliva (2 for 3, 3 rbis, 2 runs) and O'Connor (2 for 2, 3 rbis, 2 runs) led the Jumbos at the plate. Jimenez and
Keriann Slayton both had a hit and a walk and scored twice.
Delaney Rankin took the pitching loss for Bates, allowing eight hits and eight earned runs in four innings.
Game 2 - Tufts 9, Bates 1
After Tufts'
Lacy Chilek and Bates' Brigid Gaffny started the game with two scoreless innings each, the Jumbos got on top with consecutive singles by Perucci,
Haley Leimbach and Oliva (rbi).
Chilek would run her scoreless work through the sixth. She allowed two singles in the second frame, but got a strike out to end it.
The Jumbos broke the game open with six unearned runs in the fourth inning. The first five batters reached base, with the help of two Bobcat errors. Jimenez singled home a run, Leimbach hit a two-run single, Oliva had her fifth rbi of the day with a sacrifice fly and Slayton doubled home a run.
Tufts would increase the margin to 9-0 with a single by
Madi Sewell and a two-run home run by
Lindsay Neumann in the top of the seventh.
The Jumbos lost the shutout in the bottom of the seventh. Chilek gave up a lead-off double to Sienna Pietrasiewicz. Tufts went to the bullpen for O'Connor, and she got three straight outs with a grounder by Sophie Garber scoring the run.
Neumann was 3 for 4 with two rbis and two runs scored in Game 2. Leimbach finished 2 for 4 with two rbis and a run, while Sewell was 2 for 3 with two runs. Chilek remained unbeaten in the circle (6-0), going six innings allowing five hits and one run.
Ella Maher had two hits for Bates. Gaffny took the pitching loss (3.2 IP, 9 H, 1 ER).
Prior to 2023, Tufts had won 18 NESCAC East Division pennants. The NESCAC alignment was changed to one 11-team division in 2023, and in that format Tufts earns the #1 seed for the third straight season today.
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--JUMBOS--
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