BOX SCORE
WELLESLEY, Mass. - The best season in Bowdoin softball history
came to a close on Saturday as the Polar Bears dropped an
elimination game to Coast Guard, 5-1, in an NCAA Regional game at
Wellesley College. Bowdoin ends their season with a program-record
34 wins against 14 losses, including the school's first NCAA
Tournament appearance and victory.
Coast Guard catcher Amanda Frederick was dominant, collecting
three hits and three RBI in the win. That proved to be all Coast
Guard starter Hayley Feindel needed, as she limited Bowdoin to
seven hits and one run, striking out seven in the win. Kara Nilan
took the tough-luck loss for Bowdoin, tossing seven innings and
permitting just two earned runs while whiffing four. Nilan also had
a team-high three hits in the defeat while Hillary Smyth collected
a pair of doubles.
Coast Guard pieced together an unearned run in the first inning as
Maddie Buchert reached on an error and came home on a Holli
Bastnick groundout to give the Bears a 1-0 lead. Coast Guard
increased their lead in the third inning as a two-out double by
Frederick plated Megan Cook, who had led off the inning with a
walk.
The Polar Bears were able to scrape together a run in the bottom
of the frame, as Smyth led off the inning with a double to right
and came home on an illegal pitch to trim the lead to 2-1. But
Frederick delivered a big blow for Coast Guard in the top of the
fifth, blasting a two-run, two-out double to the right field wall
to increase the Bears advantage to 4-1. Jamie Kim smacked a double
to right for Coast Guard in the sixth to up the lead to 5-1.
The loss ends the careers of Bowdoin's six-member senior class of
Laurel Clark, Clare Ronan, Julia Jacobs, Jamie Paul, Lauren Coven
and Shavonne Lord, who end their time as Polar Bears with a
program-record 105 wins.
