Box Score
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Lizzy Iuppa has four hits in the first two games at the NCAA Regional
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MANSFIELD, CT - First-year sensation Allyson Fournier (South Windsor, CT) pitched a two-hitter with 14 strikeouts as the Tufts softball team won again on Friday at the NCAA Div. III Regional hosted by Eastern Connecticut State University. In a winner's bracket game, Tufts defeated St. John Fisher 3-0.
Sophomore catcher Jo Clair (Glastonbury, CT) was 2 for 4 with two doubles and two rbi for the Jumbos, who joined Coast Guard as the two teams with 2-0 records after two days. Tufts will play Coast Guard in the critical Game 11 of the tournament tomorrow at 4 pm. The winner will advance to the regional final on Sunday. Their opponent will have to beat them twice. St. John Fisher falls into the loser's bracket and will play Ithaca on Saturday at 1:30 pm.
Though both teams had base hits, neither the Jumbos nor the Cardinals scored in the first. Fournier had three K's in the inning for Tufts. St. John Fisher pitcher Danielle Leone matched Fournier through two, but Tufts got on the scoreboard in the third. With two outs, senior CF Lizzy Iuppa (Paramus, NJ) got her second hit of the game on a single to left. She promptly stole second and scored on a double to left by Clair.
While Fournier was retiring 13 straight Cardinals, the Jumbos tacked on single runs in the fourth and fifth. Junior 2B Emily Beinecke (Concord, MA) led off the fourth with an infield single and eventually scored on an error. In the fifth, sophomore lead-off hitter Sara Hedtler (Wrentham, MA) singled to the pitcher and came around on another Clair double making it 3-0.
Megan Zoerb tripled to right field to lead off the sixth and give St. John Fisher some life. However, Fournier bore down and left her there with a strike out, pop out and fly out. She then retired the Carindals 1-2-3 in the seventh to finish off her 20th win of the season. She did not walk a batter and lowered her season era to 0.39 while increasing her strikeouts to 259 in 142 innings.
Iuppa finished 2 for 4 with a run for Tufts, which improved to 38-5. The Jumbos had seven hits.
The loss spoiled a good outing by Leone (7 IP, 2 ER). An infield single by Carissa Carlson in the first was the only other base runner against Fournier besides Zoerb's triple.
Game box score
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