Salem State Ends Season With Two Losses to MCLA

North Adams, MA- The MCLA Softball team swept a pair of MASCAC games this afternoon from Salem State as they closed out the regular season for both programs.  The Trailblazers took game one 4-1 before routing the Vikings 10-2 in the nightcap.  MCLA (14-20, 7-7 MASCAC) will now be the fifth seed in this week's MASCAC tournament and will travel to fourth seeded Fitchburg State on Wednesday afternoon for the opening round.  Salem State wraps up their 2019 season at 13-25 overall and ended 2-12 in the conference.

Game One: MCLA 4 - Salem St. 1

In the opener, the Trailblazers received a complete game in the circle from Samantha Feinstein (8-8) while the offense did just enough to carry them to the win.  

After two scoreless innings, the Vikings took the lead in the third as they touched up Feinstein for a run on Mikayla Porcaro's RBI single for a short lived 1-0 lead.  MCLA would respond with a run in the bottom half on Erika Quackenbush's single to right field which scored Kara Adams knotting things up at 1-1.

MCLA took control with a three run uprising in the fourth.  Kayla Baker singled home Feinstein to give MCLA a 2-1 lead and then Adams would bring around Cassie Crosier to increase the lead to 3-1.  A Kaitlyn Berghela sacrifice fly to center would score Baker and MCLA led 4-1.

Feinstein did the rest in the circle.  She allowed just six hits and struck out five Viking batters in securing her eighth win of the season.

Adams paced the offense by going 3-4 with a run and an RBI.  Baker also had a pair of hits for the Trailblazers in the opener.

Game Two: MCLA 10 - Salem St. 2

The MCLA offense was the story in this one as they pounded out 15 hits and cruised to a six inning mercy rule victory.

The Trailblazers got a run across in the home first on Erika Quackenbush's sac fly for an early 1-0 lead.  MCLA would then tack on four more runs in the second inning to increase the lead to 5-0.  Baker's double to left scored Alanza Quinones to start the scoring and then Adams brought around Baker and it was quickly 3-0.  MCLA added another run on Quackenbush's second RBI of the day and the final run of the inning came across on a wild pitch making it 5-0 after two innings.

Morgan Watson was the beneficiary of the offense.  She cruised through the first three frames before Salem scored two runs in the fourth.  Chloe Manousos had an RBI hit while another run came across on a double steal to cut the margin to just 5-2.

MCLA had the answer though as they put the game away with two runs in each of the next two innings.  Quinones and Nevada Nelsen each had RBI's in the fourth while Quackenbush and Nelson added runs in the fifth.  The Trailblazers finally pushed across the tenth and final run in the sixth on Kaylyn Holliday's bases loaded hit to close out the Vikings.

Adams, Berghela, and Holliday collected three hits apiece in the nightcap.  Quackenbush added a pair of hits and drove in three runs.  Watson (4-2) got the win going six innings and strking out a pair of Vikings.