Top Two Teams from Each Division Converge for Three-Day Event

HADLEY, Mass. - Williams College will look to earn a third consecutive NESCAC crown this weekend when the Ephs host the 2006 NESCAC Softball Championship. The three-day, double-elimination tournament begins on Friday, May 5, at Cole Field in Williamstown, Mass. when Williams takes to the field against Trinity at 2:30 p.m., followed by Tufts taking on Amherst at 5:00 p.m. The 2006 NESCAC Softball Championship will conclude on Sunday, May 7, beginning at 10:00 a.m.

The top two teams from the East and West divisions earn the right to participate in the NESCAC tournament. The host site rotates between divisions on a yearly basis, with the top team in the West Division earning the right to host the event this season. After Friday’s pair of contests, Saturday’s morning game will be the first elimination game of the tournament between the two first day losers, followed by a contest between the first day winners. The late afternoon contest on Saturday will be an elimination game between the two teams who split their first two tournament games. Sunday’s championship will feature the survivor of the final game on Saturday and the remaining undefeated team in the tournament. A second game will immediately follow if the undefeated team falls in Sunday’s championship game.

Williams (26-8, 8-0 NESCAC West) wrapped up a perfect division slate on the road over the weekend, sweeping Amherst 9-3 and 1-0 to earn the top seed in the West. The Ephs have been on a tear as of late, winning their last 16 outings and 20 of their last 22. The two games Williams dropped however came against Tufts, the top seed from the East Division in this year’s tournament. The Jumbos posted 6-4 and 4-1 victories over the Ephs on April 2 in Medford, Mass. For Williams, senior second baseman Alana Frost (Oakland, Calif.) leads her team from the plate this season, posting a league-best .432 batting average with 12 doubles and five home runs. Classmate Clara Hard (Seattle, Wash.) has turned in a solid pitching effort for the Ephs this season, sporting an 11-3 record with seven complete games and three shutouts. Through 89.2 innings of work, Hard, a two-time NESCAC All-Conference honoree, owns a 1.87 ERA while holding opposing batters to an average of .189.

The Ephs will take on the Bantams of Trinity (22-8, 4-4 NESCAC East), the second-seed from the East Division. Trinity used a sweep of its own to secure the number two seed, overcoming Bates at home on April 29 by scores of 7-1 and 9-6. While the Bantams and the Bobcats finished tied for second in the East Division with an identical record of 4-4, the sweep by Trinity gave the Bantams the head-to-head edge. Trinity is making its second consecutive appearance in the NESCAC championship, falling one game shy of the final last year. This will be the first meeting of the season between Trinity and Williams, after both teams last faced each other in Game 2 of last year’s tournament, a meeting that ended in favor of the Ephs, 7-1. The Bantams have already faced Amherst and Tufts this season, defeating Amherst 5-4 on April 18 but dropping a pair to East Division foe Tufts 5-1 and 5-2 on April 22. The pitching tandem of senior Victoria Moshier (Old Saybrook, Conn.) and junior Sara Dougherty (Long Valley, N.J.) highlight a Bantam pitching staff that holds the lowest ERA in the league at 1.83. Moshier has an 8-4 record entering the weekend with an ERA of 2.66, while Dougherty is 11-4 on the season with a 1.17 ERA.

Tufts (24-12, 7-1 NESCAC East), which has played in the title game four times and won three NESCAC Softball crowns, fell in last year’s championship to the Ephs, 9-0 in the final game. Against the entire tournament field, Tufts holds the all-time advantage in tournament play with a 5-4 record against Williams, a 2-0 record against Amherst, and a 1-0 record against Trinity. While the Jumbos swept aside both the Bantams and the Ephs this season, they fell in an early season meeting with the Jeffs, 3-1 on March 24 in Orange County, Calif. Although Tufts enters Friday’s game against Amherst after splitting a pair of weekend series at Endicott and Colby, no team this season has taken two games from the Jumbos. Tufts is currently atop the league in most offensive statistical categories, holding a league-high team batting average of .324 along with a league-best fielding percentage of .952. Starting every single game this season, sophomore second baseman Danielle Lopez (Danvers, Mass.), the 2005 Rookie of the Year, leads her team from the plate, batting .402 entering the weekend while belting 11 home runs. Lopez is approaching the single-season marks at Tufts in hits, home runs, runs scored, runs batted in, and total bases.

Amherst (18-10, 5-3 NESCAC West), the second-seed from the West Division, is making its first appearance in the NESCAC tournament since the Spring of 2002. Amherst held the tiebreak advantage over Middlebury, giving the Jeffs the final playoff spot this year. This season’s squad will look to take it a step further than just making the tournament, as Amherst is 0-4 in its two previous appearances in the NESCAC championship. The Jeffs have a good chance of accomplishing that feat in 2006 thanks to the solid pitching of senior Miya Warner (Berkeley, Calif.). Warner, an All-Conference First Team selection a year ago, is 14-5 this season, pitching 12 complete games and recording four shutouts. Through 118.2 innings of work, Warner has an ERA of 1.59, third among her counterparts in the league, while holding opposing batters to a .188 average and striking out 147, both tops in the NESCAC this season.

2006 NESCAC SOFTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP
Day 1 - Friday, May 5 at Williams
Game 1 - E2 Trinity at W1 Williams - 2:30 p.m.
Game 2 - W2 Amherst vs. E1 Tufts - 5:00 p.m.

Day 2 - Saturday, May 6 at Williams
Game 3 - Loser of GM 1 vs. Loser of GM 2 - 10:00 a.m.
Game 4 - Winner of GM 1 vs. Winner of GM 2 - 12:30 p.m.
Game 5 - Winner of GM 3 vs. Loser of GM 4 - 3:00 p.m.

Day 3 - Sunday, May 7 at Williams
Game 6 - Winner of GM 4 vs. Winner of GM 5 - 10:00 a.m.
Game 7 - If Necessary - Immediately Following