GAME ONE BOX SCORE (Bowdoin 6, Williams 0)
GAME TWO BOX SCORE (Bowdoin 5, Wesleyan 2)
GAME THREE BOX SCORE (Wesleyan 10, Bowdoin 1)
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. - The Bowdoin College softball team pushed
Wesleyan to the limit, but fell one win short of their first
conference championship on the final day of the 2010 NESCAC
Softball Tournament.
The Polar Bears defeated Williams 6-0 to advance to the
championship round where they downed the Cardinals 5-2 to set up a
winner-take-all Game 7. In the final game of the championship,
Wesleyan scored eight times in the third inning to take an eventual
10-1 win.
Bowdoin, who has posted a program-best 33-12 campaign, will hope
for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament when pairings are
announced on Monday at noon. The Polar Bears will be looking to
make their first-ever trip to the national tournament.
Bowdoin 6, Williams 0
Kara Nilan almost singlehandedly pitched the Polar Bears to the
NESCAC Championship on Sunday, tossing 17 innings without allowing
an earned run. Nilan pitched a five-hitter to blank Williams
in an elimination game on Sunday morning, striking out five over
seven innings 
an allowing just one runner to get past second base.
Bowdoin scored all the runs it needed against Williams in the
second inning. Gen Barlow led off with a single, stole second and
scored when Molly Nestor's grounder resulted in a throwing error.
With the bases loaded and two outs, Shavonne Lord's line drive to
left was dropped, allowing two runs to score and put Bowdoin up
3-0.
Williams put runners of first and third with two outs in the third
on singles by Carly Ameen and Allison Hart, but Nilan induced a pop
up from Caitlyn Cain to end the frame. Bowdoin added two runs to
its lead in the fourth when Clare Ronan drew a two-out walk and Amy
Hackett went down and drilled an ankle high pitch over the fence in
left for a two-run homer and a 5-0 Polar Bear lead.
Bowdoin 5, Wesleyan 2
After a rocky first inning that saw Wesleyan score a pair of
unearned runs, Nilan stymied the Cardinals for the rest of the
contest, allowing just five hits over the final six innings while
striking out three.
Bowdoin scored four times in the sixth inning to take the lead for
good, as five straight hits, capped by a three-run home run by
Clare Ronan, gave the Polar Bears a 5-2 lead. Hillary Smyth started
the rally and reached base three times in the win, while Nilan,
Caroline Dewar and Shavonne Lord also had two hits apiece.
Wesleyan 10, Bowdoin 1
The Polar Bears ran out of magic in the final game of the
tournament, however, as a pair of costly errors led to eight
Wesleyan runs in the decisive third inning. The Cardinals rapped
out 11 hits in the game, led by three from Meaghan Dendy. Bowdoin
could muster only three hits off a pair of Wesleyan pitchers, as
Smyth laced an RBi single to score Jamie Paul in the fifth.
The title is the first for the Wesleyan softball team (23-16-1)
who had twice finished as runners-up. The runner-up finish for
Bowdoin is the second in program history, as the Polar Bears placed
second in the 2001 NESCAC Championship.
