Golden Bears Roll to Doubleheader Sweep of Wentworth on Senior Day

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (April 23, 2016) - The Western New England University softball team celebrated senior day by piling up 26 hits on its way to a doubleheader sweep of the Wentworth Institute of Technology this afternoon in Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) action at Golden Bear Softball Park.

Western New England improves to 15-3 in conference play and 21-13 overall with the two victories, reaching the 20-win mark for the fourth consecutive season and 16^th time in head coach Lori Mayhew's 20-year tenure. Wentworth drops to 4-23 (0-16 CCC) with the setbacks.
 
Prior to the start of game one, Western New England honored its five seniors nearing the end of their collegiate careers - McKenzie Pezze (Albany, N.Y.), Heidi Grieger (Hyde Park, N.Y.), Alexis Bukowski (Wallingford, Conn.), Heather Fecteau (Biddeford, Maine) and Tara Cabral (Kingston, Mass.).
 
Western New England 8, Wentworth 3
Pezze and Cabral led the way in the opener, recording three hits each, while Grieger improved to 13-5 this season in the circle after surrendering just one unearned run on two hits over four innings of work.
 
The Golden Bears jumped out to an early lead, plating a pair of runs in the bottom of the first on RBI singles by Pezze and Grieger.
 
Western New England then scored three more runs in the second inning to open up a 5-0 advantage. Pezze, who hit her first career home run on Tuesday at Wesleyan, came up with two outs and two runners on base and sent a three-run homer over the left center field fence.
 
Both teams plated a single run in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, as the Golden Bears cruised to a five-run triumph.
 
Sophomore Vanessa Weymouth (Fremont, N.H.) and junior Kelsey Gorski (Killingworth, Conn.) paced the Leopards with two hits each.
 
Western New England 8, Wentworth 2
Western New England's bats stayed hot in game two, as the Golden Bears recorded 14 more hits and scored eight more runs. Fecteau posted a 4-for-4 effort at the plate with a double, one RBI and three runs scored, while Pezze collected three more hits and scored a pair of runs.
 
Junior pitcher Samantha DiGiovanni (Shirley, N.Y) got the start in the circle and turned in a strong performance, allowing just three hits over five shutout frames to improve to 3-7 this season.
 
After a pair of scoreless innings, Western New England put two runs on the board in the third, as Fecteau recorded an RBI single before coming around to score on a Wentworth error, and sophomore Jenn Luba (Plymouth, Conn.) added another RBI single later in the inning.
 
The Golden Bears broke the game open in the bottom of the fifth, when the first three batters reached base and Luba drove all of them in with a grand slam to center field.
 
Wentworth broke through with a couple of late runs, but the deficit was too much to overcome as Western New England completed the senior day sweep.
 
The Golden Bears will be right back in action tomorrow, as they head to Biddeford, Maine to close out their CCC slate with a doubleheader at the University of New England. Western New England can clinch the No. 1 seed in the upcoming CCC Tournament with a split against the Nor'easters.