CAMBRIDGE, MA – Lesley University softball secured its first-place finish in the New England Collegiate Conference with a pair of wins over second-place Elms College, 1-0 and 3-0, Tuesday afternoon.

            With the wins, the Lynx improve to 21-6, 12-0 in NECC play, while Elms falls to 14-12 and 8-2 in league play.

            Sarah Apgar's (Andover, NJ/Lenape Valley) Game 1 walk-off double in the bottom of the seventh inning clinched the shutout for starter Cassandra Knox (Sea Cliff, NY/North Shore). Alyson Durben (Stow, MA/Nashoba), who scored the game-winning run in the opener, drove in all three runs in Game 2, a 3-0 shutout from freshman hurler Jennifer Dorval (Franklin, NH/Franklin).

            Each team turned key double plays in the first inning as both defenses shined early in the opening game. Apgar turned a 6-3, inning-ending double play in the second before leading off the bottom of the inning with an infield hit, only to be left stranded on third after Elms' Destinee Meeker's (Bantam, CT/Litchfield) snag on a line-drive comebacker.

            Meeker and Knox dominated what was a scoreless game until Lesley finally got to the Blazers starter in the seventh inning, which Durben led off with a single up the middle. Two batters later, the Lynx captain scored all the way from first on Apgar's game-winning hit, a double to the left-center field gap.

            The walk-off win was the Lynx second win in the team's final at-bat in its last six home games.

            Knox improved to 10-4 on the season, allowing only four hits, striking out five and extending her home scoreless-innings streak to 20 1/3 innings.

            Meeker struck out two and allowed one earned on six hits in her 6 1/3 innings. 

            Game 2 was also a pitcher's duel in the early innings. Lesley scored the game's first run in the fifth, when a Durben bunt plated Gabrielle Brixey (Coalinga, CA/West Hills CC) to put the Lynx up 1-0. Durben provided some insurance in the seventh, driving in Brixey as well as pinch runner Chelsea Quackenbush (East Hampton, CT/East Hampton) to make it a 3-0 game after six.

            Dorval worked a shut-down seventh, striking out two in the frame, in matching Knox for the league lead with 10 wins. The freshman hurler struck out nine in her three-hit shutout, improving to 10-2.

            In support of Dorval, Durben went 1-for-3 with three RBIs, and Brixey went 2-for-3 with two runs scored. 

            Courtney Hampton (Westfield, MA/Westfield) was solid in her six innings of work for the Blazers, scattering five hits, striking out five and allowing three runs, two earned.

            Lesley returns to the diamond on Thursday in non-conference play against Regis College, while Elms travels to Wheelock tomorrow afternoon.