Owls Topple Vikings

WESTFIELD, Mass. -- Fifth seed Salem State battled top seed Westfield State at Sullivan Field in the second round of the MASCAC Softball Tournament on Thursday. Katherine Canty fired a five-inning, two-hit shutout and posted three strikeouts to lead the Owls (32-9) to a 12-0 victory as Westfield State advances to the winners' bracket to play at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, while Salem State (18-19) stays alive in the losers' bracket and will play an elimination game at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday.  

Please note that the semifinal round games have been pushed to Saturday due to the amount of rainfall in the Friday forecast.  Commensurately the tournament's championship round will move to Sunday.

Mia Alfonso was 2-for-2 with a a run and four RBI for Westfield State. Sarah Hough went 3-for-4 with two runs and three RBI. Allyssa Slack added a two-run homer and scored two runs.  

Gracie Martineau started for Salem State and lasted 1.2 innings and was charged with six runs on eight hits before being replaced by Mady Breault.  Breault allowed four earned runs on three hits with three walks. Samantha Gaona-Sullivan and Tara Perryman collected the only hits for the Vikings.

How it Happened:

• Three runs by Westfield State put them on top 3-0 in the first after a single by Alfonso and two-run double by Sarah Bingham.
• Three more runs by the Owls on a base hit by Hough and two-run single by Alfonso made it 6-0 in the second.
• A walk to Christina Ciampa with the bases loaded and a two-run single by Hough pushed the lead to 9-0 in the third before Alfonso added her fourth RBI of the game with a sacrifice fly that made it 10-0. 
• Slack connected for a two-run home run in the fourth, making the final 12-0.