A Quick Look
The NEC softball team came away with a split on day two of its spring trip to Florida. In the first game of the day, the Pilgrims defeated Concordia University of Chicago 5-3 before falling to the University of Dubuque 1-0.
Game 1 – NEC 5, Concordia 3
The Cougars plated a pair in the top of the first inning to grab an early lead. Junior
Emily Garcia was hit by a pitch to start the game and went to second base on a ground out to second base. Garcia came around to score on an RBI single to center field off the bat of senior
Arissa Santos. Santos scored on an RBI double to left field by sophomore
Alyssa Campos, who was thrown out at third on the play on a great relay play that started with left fielder
Kyndal Murawski (Putnam, CT). Junior
Kate Gagne (Portsmouth, NH) was the middle piece on the relay as she got the ball to freshman third baseman
Makayla Halley (Ventura, CA) who applied the tag for the out.
The Pilgrims took advantage of two errors in the bottom of the second inning that led to three runs. Senior
Emma Lopez (Downey, CA) and Halley drew back-to-back walks before moving into scoring position on a wild pitch. Senior
Ashleigh Lemay (Derry, NH) then walked to load the bases with no outs.
Junior
Arianna Bayze (Temecula, CA) then reached on an error which brought Lopez home while keeping the bases loaded. Junior
Wren Anhalt (Brooksville, FL) helped her own cause with a sacrifice fly that scored Halley to knot the game at 2-2.
Junior
Sydney MacLean (Keene, NH) reached on an error to load the bases once again for senior
Grace Giesler (La Mirada, CA) who grounded out to second base scoring Lemay from third.
Concordia tied the score in the top of the third inning when Santos smacked a double to left field to drive in junior Linley Southern who came all the way around from first base.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, Anhalt led off with a single to left field and went to second on an infield single by MacLean. MacLean was forced out on a ground ball by Giesler giving the Grims runners at the corners with one out. A double steal for NEC worked allowing sophomore
Mackenzie Yirrell (Methuen, MA) to score from third after entering the game as a pinch-runner for Anhalt.
The Pilgrims added an insurance run in the bottom of the fifth, once again making the Cougars pay for a mishap in the field. Lopez and Halley started the inning off with a walk and a single respectively. Lopez was forced out on a ground ball to third base and on an attempted double play, the ball got away from the first baseman allowing Halley to move to third base. Halley scored on a ground out by Bayze to give the Grims a 5-3 advantage.
Anhalt then retired five straight batters before a bloop single into shallow right field gave the Cougars a baserunner with two outs in the seventh. The game ended when Lopez threw out an attempted steal of second base.
Anhalt went the distance to record her initial win of 2026. She struck out one batter, didn't walk anyone and allowed only six hits.
MacLean had a pair of hits and Bayze drove in a pair to lead the offense for the Pilgrims.
Game 2 – Dubuque 1, NEC 0
In game two today, the Pilgrims managed only four hits including a pair by Lopez. The Grims just couldn't get a key hit stranding eight runners in the first four innings in scoring position.
Freshman
Kendal Cote (Charlestown, NH) made her collegiate debut going the distance striking out three batters while allowing only six hits.
On the other side, freshman
Skylar Zoetman recorded her first complete game shutout of her career striking out three batters in the process.
What's Next
The Grims will have an off day on Wednesday before getting back into action on Thursday with a pair versus Albright at 12:15pm and Wartburg at 2:30pm.
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