The Husson Eagles softball team finished off their regular season Monday afternoon. Having already wrapped up the #2 seed for the upcoming NAC tournament, the Eagles finished strong with a home doubleheader sweep over UMaine-Farmington at O’Keefe Field in Bangor.
In game one the visiting Beavers took a 1-0 lead in the third inning, but the Eagles scored two in the fifth and got a strong effort in the circle from Jen Jones to take a 2-1 win. Kayleigh Oberg reached on an error allowing an unearned run to come across to allow the Beavers to take a one run advantage. In the fifth Whitney Bess hit an RBI single to tie it 1-1, and Bri Brochu reached on an error allowing Bess to score unearned for what turned into the game winning run.
Jones had two hits to pace the Husson attack, and also got the pitching win in improving to 10-5 by allowing no earned runs, five hits, with no walks, and 10 strikeouts in 7.0 innings. Five different Beavers had hits in the game. Kailyn Hill (4-11) was the tough luck loser in the circle allowing just one earned run, six hits, with no walks, and four strikeouts in 6.0 innings.
In game two Bess had four RBI and four others added RBI hits as the Eagles rolled to the sweep with a 9-3 win. Husson quickly took a 4-0 lead in the first inning when Chloe Gorey hit an RBI single, and Tamara Aunchman and Jones followed with the same. Kylie Kennedy drove in the fourth run by reaching on a fielders choice. Broghan Gagnon got one run back for UMF with an RBI double in the second. Bess extended the lead back to five runs with a two run single in the third. The Beavers got back within 6-3 in the sixth when Oberg hit a two run double, but the Eagles put it away when Jones reached on an error to score a runner, and Bess hit another two run single in the bottom half of the sixth.
Along with the four RBI for Bess, Husson got three hits from Kylie Cunningham and Aunchman, and two each from Gorey and Jones. Arika Brochu (8-2) got the win in the circle allowing three runs, five hits, with two walks, and seven strikeouts in 7.0 innings. Alyssa Dillan and Oberg had two hits each for the Beavers, and Brianna McGrath (10-7) was the loser in the circle allowing five earned runs, 16 hits, with five strikeouts in 6.0 innings.
Husson finishes at 21-9, 11-1 in NAC. UMF closes out at 14-17, 6-6. The Beavers will still be a part of the NAC tournament starting Friday vs Thomas College in Waterville as the #4 seed. The host Terriers finished 11-1 but won the tiebreaker over the Eagles for home field and hosts the tourney at Colby College. Thomas won 12 in a row to finish the regular season, while Husson won nine of their last 10.
