Lancers Drop Two in Hard Road Battle versus WPI

Worcester, MA- After winning their two games against Clark University last night it was a quick turnaround for the Lancers as they took a trip down the road to face off against WPI.  They were looking to continue their momentum from the previous games and continue their winning streak.

The game did not start the way Worcester State wanted as in the bottom of the first inning WPI started the scoring with a 2 RBI double and RBI single to take a 3-0 lead.  WPI continued to pour it on offensively as they scored three more runs in the bottom of the second inning to make it a 5-0 deficit for the Lancers.

However Worcester State started to wake up the bats in the top of the 4th inning as a RBI single by freshman Bella Gasbarro (Leominster, MA) and a RBI single by junior Lauren Dube (Leominster, MA) cut the deficit to 5-2.  The comeback attempt continued as in the top of the 5th inning when sophomore Abigail Koziol (Lunenburg, MA) hit an RBI single to cut it to 5-3.

The comeback attempt ended in vain however as WPI put up 5 runs in the bottom of the 6th inning and Worcester State was not able to do anything in the top of the 7th as they lost the first of two games against WPI 10-3.

Junior Emily Bartlett (Lowell, MA) (62-33) pitched 1.2 innings in the action to start the game, allowing five runs and recording three strikeouts and sophomore Sarah Gosselin (Charlton, MA) (66-35) finished out the game for the Lancers. Senior Rachel Sinclair (Westminster, MA) recorded a double in play. 

In Game 2 the Lancers were looking for some redemption for Game 1 but WPI got on the board early again as they led 1-0 after the bottom of the first but Worcester State pitcher Senior Jen Thorburn (Groton, MA) was able to get out a jam to end the inning.  However, in the bottom of the 3rd inning, WPI scored five runs punctuated by a 2-run homerun that increased the deficit for the lancer to 6-0.  The Lancers loaded the bases in the top of the 4th inning but couldn't get a run across.  WPI scored again in the bottom of the 5th inning and in the bottom of the 6th inning WPI hit a walkoff solo home run to end the game by mercy rule 8-0 in 6 innings. 

Worcester State's pitching was led by Senior Jen Thornburg pitched 2.2 innings to start the game for the Lancers and allowed six runs and had three strikeouts and Freshman Jayden Kelly (Tyngsboro, MA) who pitched 3 innings allowing two runs.  Although there weren't a lot of hits in this game for Worcester State, Abigail Koziol had 2 of the 3 Lancers hits in this game going 2-2.

With these two losses the Lancers drop to a 10-8 record on the season while WPI improves their record to 6-10.  The next game for Worcester State is on April 1st when they host Salem State for a double header that starts at 12pm and 2pm.