WESTON, Mass. – Lesley University smashed 15 hits on their way to an 11-1 New England Collegiate Conference First Round victory over Bay Path University Wednesday night at Regis College. The Lynx will advance to weekend play in the NECC Championship Tournament and battle second-seeded Newbury College at 12:00p in Leicester, Mass. Top-seeded Becker College will be the host for the double-elimination tournament.
The Lynx wasted little time in building a big league as they pushed across six runs in the first and five more in the third before closing out the 11-1 triumph in five innings.
Junior Carlyn Barker (Temecula, Calif.) was a perfect 3-for-3 with two doubles, three RBI, and two runs scored to lead the Lynx attack while freshman Abby Henderson (Rochester, N.H.) all drove in a trio of runs. Senior Sydney Thayer (Reading, Mass.) roped a pair of doubles and freshman Jordan Raab (Rochester, N.H.) and sophomore Theresa Pereira (Hopedale, Mass.) also picked up a pair of hits.
Sophomore starter Kaera Wyse (Reading, Mass.) earned the win and struck out six Wildcats while yielding just one run (zero earned) on five hits.
Bay Path senior Anna Meyer (Millbrook, N.Y.) led the offense for the visitors going 2-for-2 with a run scored while freshman Katrina Peck (Newington, Conn.) finished 1-for-2 with an RBI.
Lesley sent ten batters to the plate in the top of the first as senior Selena Quezada (West Covina, Calif.) and freshman Stephanie Schofield (Redwood City, Calif.) set the table with a double and single to lead off the inning. Barker would plate Quezada with a double to left before Henderson knocked in a pair with a hard single down the third baseline. Sophomore Courtney Goggin (Cheshire, Conn.) would later plate two more with a double down the right field line before Thayer followed with a two-bagger down the left field line to give the hosts an early 6-0 lead.
The Lynx would load the bases with no outs in the bottom of the third before taking advantage of a Wildcats error to put up the first run of the inning. Barker would strike again for a two-run double to drive in Pereira and Raab before Henderson knocked her second RBI single of the night to give the Lynx a commanding 11-0 lead.
Bay Path would score their sole run of the game in the fourth inning as Peck beat out an infield single to score Meyer who earlier reached on a single and advanced to third on an error in the Lesley outfield.
In other First Round action, Newbury scored five in the fifth and four more in the sixth to overcome a 1-0 deficit to top seventh-seeded Elms College 10-1. Fourth seed Regis College also advanced to weekend action with a 5-1 victory over fifth-seed Mitchell College. The Mariners will square off with the top-seeded Hawks on Friday at 10:00a.