Sports

Bears Clinch Conference Tournament Spot

Softball, baseball pick up wins

The Coast Guard Academy twice defeated Springfield College on Friday to earn a spot in the NEWMAC softball tournament, while the baseball team broke a Framingham State University winning streak. The following information was provided by Jason Southard, sports information director at the Coast Guard Academy:

Softball: Coast Guard 5, Springfield 4; Coast Guard 4, Springfield 3

Senior All-American Hayley Feindel threw a pair of complete games and struck out 23 as Coast Guard locked up a spot in the conference tournament by sweeping first place Springfield in a New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) doubleheader. The Bears won the opener 5-4 in eight innings before completing the sweep with a 4-3 win in the night cap.

In the opener, senior Maddie Buchert was placed at second in the bottom of the eighth as part of the tiebreaker. Freshman Jesse Richardson’s bunt was thrown away allowing Buchert to score as junior catcher Allison Clott could not handle the throw giving the Bears the game one win.

Coast Guard scored twice in the first on a two-run double by sophomore Kaitlin Ward. The Pride got one in the top of the second on a solo homer by junior Breann Joyce.

Springfield tied the game on an unearned run in the fourth as senior Kelly Blake and Joyce led off with back-to-back singles and advanced to second and third on an error before Blake scored on another error to tie the game 2-2.

The Bears took the lead right back in the home half of the fourth as Ward blasted solo homer.

The Pride tied the game in the fifth as senior Ally Rivelli singled and a two-base error put her on third before scoring on a wild pitch.

Richardson led off the sixth with a double and scored on Ward’s double as the Bears took a 4-3 lead. Coast Guard was one out away from the win before an error allowed senior Kelsey Dunn, who led off with a single, to score sending the game to extra innings.

In the top of the eighth, Blake was placed on second when Ward, who was outstanding at the plate, made an outstanding play running into the centerfield fence and possibly taking a homer away from Joyce. Blake tagged and went to third, but Feindel got the next two batter to pop up to end the inning.

Ward wad 3 for 3 with all four RBI’s while Joyce was 3 for 4 and Rivelli had two hits.

Feindel scattered seven hits and allowed just one earned run while walking one and striking out 13 to get the win.

Sophomore Ashley Marino (12-6) went the distance for Springfield and allowed just five hits and just two earned runs, did not walk a batter and fanned five, but was the tough luck loser.

In the night cap, Springfield struck first in the second and it was Joyce once again hitting a solo homer for a 1-0 lead.

Junior Stacia Sarwinski’s two-run double highlighted a three-run second and senior Jamie Kim added a sacrifice fly as the Bears took the lead for good 3-1.

Coast Guard added an insurance run in the third on an RBI single by freshman Chloe Harmon scoring junior Holli Bastinck, who led off with a double.

Feindel was cruising as she allowed a single to Rivelli in the third and then did not allow a hit until Blake led off with single in the sixth. She struck out six straight in that span.

Joyce came up big once again with a two-run homer, her third home run of the day in the sixth to cut the deficit to 4-3, but the All-American retired the final six batters in order fanning three to pick up the win.

Feindel allowed six hits and three earned runs while not walking a batter and striking out ten to improve to 13-6 on the season.

Sophomore Jennifer Joseph (9-4) went the distance for Springfield allowing seven hits and two earned runs while walking two and striking out five.

Joyce was 2 for 3 with the two homers and three RBI’s to lead Springfield while Harmon was 2 for 2 leading the Bears at the plate.

Springfield drops to 20-12-1 and remains in first place in the NEWMAC with a 10-4 conference record while the Bears improve to 20-14 overall and improve to 8-6 in conference play.

The Pride will host Wheaton in a doubleheader to close the NEWMAC regular season needing one win to win the regular season championship.

Coast Guard hosts Babson in a doubleheader tomorrow with both teams in a three-way tie for fourth at 8-6 and just a game out of second place.

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Baseball: Coast Guard 13, Framingham State 10

Junior Tyler Babkiewich picked up the 100th hit of his career and his two-run double highlighted a five-run fifth as Coast Guard snapped a four-game losing streak with a 13-10 win over Framingham State in a non-conference game.

The Bears snapped the Rams four-game winning streak to improve to 13-21 on the season while Framingham State drops to 19-12 overall.

Framingham struck first in the top of the first on a two-run homer by senior Pedro Acevedo for a 2-0 lead.

The Bears tied it in the second on a sacrifice fly by sophomore Dave Wolinski and an RBI ground out by freshman Matt Hanks. Coast Guard took the lead for good with two in the third on a sacrifice fly by senior Eddie Kalankiewicz and an RBI double by Wolinski for a 4-2 lead.

Framingham junior Justin Forman hit a solo shot in the fourth to cut the deficit to 4-3 before Coast Guard got the run right back in the home half on an RBI single by Babkiewich, his 100th career hit

After the Rams got a run in the top of the fifth on an RBI single by junior Will Crofton, the Bears had the big five-run fifth.

Coast Guard scored all five runs in the fifth with two outs. Hanks had an RBI single, the first RBI of his career, the Bears scored a pair of runs on an error before Babkiewich’s double gave the Bears a 10-4 lead.

Junior Nate Toll (2-4) went the first six innings and allowed seven hits and four earned runs while walking two and striking out a season-high seven to get the win for Coast Guard.

Framingham got three runs in the seventh before the Bears scored three times in the eighth on an RBI single by Kalankiewicz, an RBI double by junior Cameron Carroll and a sacrifice fly by senior Nick Peters for a 13-7 lead.

The Rams made things interesting in the ninth as after a pair of ground outs, four straight batters drew walks and the Bears went to their closer junior Tyler Vieira. Back-to-back errors brought the go ahead run to plate as the bases were loaded with the score 13-10, but Hanks made a diving catch in right field off the bat of Crofton to preserve the win for the Bears and the fourth save of the season for Vieira.

Junior Nolan Gallagher was 3 for 4 with a double and two runs scored while Kalankiewicz, Babkiewich, Carroll, Wolinski and Hanks each had two hits. The two hits by Hanks were the first two of his career in his first career start.

Crofton had three hits to lead Framingham while senior Chris Blydell added two hits in the loss.

Freshman Zach Kirby (1-3) started and took the loss for Framingham. He went four innings and allowed nine hits and five runs, four earned, while walking one and fanning two.

Coast Guard will close out the season with a doubleheader vs. Mitchell on Wednesday at Dodd Stadium in Norwich.

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