CASTLETON, Vermont — The second-seeded Husson University Eagles won two games to advance to the championship round for the seventh straight time at the North Atlantic Conference softball tourney Friday.
Husson edged No. 3 Thomas 3-1 and then shut out No. 4 New England College to advance to a 2 p.m. Saturday game against the winner of Saturday’s first game between Thomas and New England College.
New England College upset No. 1 seed and tourney host Castleton State 3-2 in Friday’s first game and then Thomas of Waterville (15-22) ousted the Spartans in the third game 5-1, setting up Saturday’s elimination game against NEC at noon.
That winner will take on Husson (24-11), with an if-necessary game set for 1 p.m. Sunday if Husson loses on Saturday in the double-elimination tourney.
Kayla Merrill notched the win for the Eagles against Thomas as she allowed only four hits while not walking a batter and striking out four.
Sami Schultz gave Merrill all the runs she needed when she cranked a three-run home run to left in the third inning. Casey Lopes added a double and two singles.
Alyssa Eugley hit a solo homer off Merrill in the first inning.
Merrill pitched four shut innings to help Husson beat NEC as she allowed one hit, didn’t walk a batter and struck out two. Alannah Healy came on in relief with two shutout, hitless innings.
The Eagles did most of their damage in a seven-run fifth inning, highlighted by Schultz’s two-run double and a three-run homer by Chelsea Brennan.
Schultz also singled twice while Haley Spiers and Lyndsay Merrill each added two singles, with Spiers driving in a run.
Sonja Morse (8-8) came on with a strong pitching effort to help Thomas eliminate the Spartans in the day’s third game. She scattered six hits, didn’t walk a batter and struck out six.
Morse helped herself out by leading off with a solo homer in the Terriers’ five-run fourth inning when Briana Warren chipped in with a two-run double.
Katie Gagne hit a solo homer for the Spartans in the fifth.
Maine earns league tourney berth
At Vestal, New York, senior righthander Alexis Bogdanovich tossed five innings of four-hit shutout baseball and Janelle Bouchard belted a three-run homer as the University of Maine softball team qualified for the America East Tournament with a 9-0 five-inning win over Binghamton in the first game of their doubleheader on Friday.
Binghamton came back to win the nightcap 5-4 in 10 innings to also earn a tourney spot.
Maine and Binghamton will join regular season champion Stony Brook and Albany in the four-team double-elimination tournament.
Stony Brook is 13-2 in league play, Albany and Maine are 10-6 and Binghamton is 9-6.
Maine, 21-19 overall, and Binghamton (19-18) will play a single game on Saturday.
In the opener, Bogdanovich struck out seven and didn’t walk anyone.
Bouchard homered for the second straight game, this one coming in the first inning to stake Maine to a 3-0 lead.
Felicia Lennon, EmJ Fogel and Rachel Carlson had two hits each for Maine and Shelby Obert homered.
In the second game, Lisa Cadogan’s single in the 10th drove in Jessica Rutherford to give Binghamton the victory.
Rachel Harvey, Kristen Koslosky and Nikki Byron had two hits each for Maine.
Baseball
Husson, Thomas advance
At Castleton, Vermont, freshman righthander Robert Graff from South Portland hurled a complete-game nine-hitter and Adam Wilson and J.T. Whitten each homered as Husson University beat the University of Maine-Farmington 8-3 in the losers bracket game at the North Atlantic Conference tournament.
Third seed Thomas College of Waterville had upset second seed Husson 10-7 earlier and top seed Castleton State had beaten fourth seed UMF 4-1.
Castleton State and Thomas will play in the winners bracket game on Saturday at 9 a.m. and the loser will face Husson at noon. The championship round will begin at 10 a.m. on Sunday and the if necessary game will follow.
In the third game of the day, Graff struck out two and walked two to improve to 6-0. All three runs off him were unearned.
Whitten also doubled and singled and drove in two runs and Wilson had a single to go with his homer and knocked in three runs. Christian Corneil had two doubles and a single and Brandon Gendreau had a double and two singles.
Dustin McCrossin had a double and two singles for UMF and drove in two runs.
In the opener, Devin Hayes, Mike LaBeau and T.J. Fearon teamed up on an eight-hitter and Nick Swim, Jimmy Buckley and Soren Pelz-Walsh had two hits each as Castleton State upended UMF.
In the second game, Husson committed two of its six errors in the ninth inning allowing three unearned runs to score as Thomas broke a 7-7 tie.
Nine of Thomas’ 10 runs were unearned.