Game One: Westfield State 1 Ð Framingham State 0
Game Two: Westfield State 4 Ð Framingham State 2
WESTFIELD Ð The Westfield State softball team received two stellar pitching performances from junior Beth Garfield (Brockton) and senior Leah Peterson (Lakeville) to sweep a doubleheader from Framingham State, 1-0 and 4-2, in key conference action April 28.
The Owls improved to 8-4 in the conference (13-18 overall), while Framingham evened its records at 15-15 at 6-6. Westfield has a key doubleheader Saturday at Salem State in its conference regular season finale.
Garfield twirled a two-hit shutout in Game One, which went eight innings. She walked two and struck out only one, but she kept the Rams off balance with a nice breaking pitch.
The game-winning hit was delivered by freshman first baseman Kate Silva (Wilbraham), who singled up the middle to plate Emily Tangney from third base.
Rapping doubles were Westfield senior Casey Greggo (Wappinger Falls, NY) and Ram sophomore Laura Walsh (Dracut).
Sophomore DeAnna Curtis (Lakeville) pitched the final four innings to suffer the setback.
In the nightcap, the Owls rapped five of their six hits in the decisive fourth inning. Greggo ripped an RBI double down the leftfield line, then scored on a double to left-center by Kayla Banaszek. Garfield stroked an RBI single up the middle, then scored on an RBI double by sophomore Lindsey Adams (Westfield).
Framingham scored twice in the fifth inning on an RBI double by Make Faria and a runscoring single by Christina Sullivan.
Peterson allowed four hits and five walks while striking out nine. Framingham had runners on second and third in the seventh when cleanup hitter Melissa Howard lined out to third base to end the game.