America East Softball Heading To Championship Softball Saturday
The final round in the America East Softball Championship Tournament is scheduled for a noon start on Saturday at the Bearcats Sports Complex. Advancing to the final round are the UMass Lowell River Hawks and the Albany Great Danes.
UMass Lowell advances by defeating Albany earlier in the day Saturday by a final score of 5-2 in eight innings. The River Hawks scored all five of their runs in the eighth inning. Sara Siteman paced the attack with a two-run home run for the winners.
In the middle game of the day Stony Brook eliminated the Maine Black Bears 2-0. That advanced the Seawolves to the final game of the day and in the elimination contest the Great Danes exploded with home runs from catcher and Chenango Valley grad Chelsea Henige and designated hitter Kelly Barkevich. Barkevich's blast was a three- run shot and closed out their 9-0 victory.
Play is scheduled to begin at noon on Saturday with the game televised on the America East website at americaeast.com. If UMass Lowell wins the River Hawks will be the 2018 champions. An Albany victory would leave each team with a loss in the double elimination tournament. That would set-up another game to follow to determine the conference championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament,