THE BASICS:

- Scores:
WPI - 4, MIT - 3

- Records: MIT (30-16), WPI (30-14)

- Location: Babson Park, Mass. (Alumni Field)

- The Lead: The MIT softball team lost a heartbreaker to WPI in the 2022 NEWMAC Softball Championship on a walk-off to give the No. 2 seed WPI the championship. MIT entered as the three seed and won four-straight games to force the decisive game. 
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

- MIT manufactured the game's first run in the top of the first. First-year Kennedy Adkison (San Jose, Calif.) led off the game with a single and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt from senior Anya Chase (Wells, Maine). Adkison then stole second and came around to score on a sacrifice fly by first-year Mackenzie Bivin (San Diego, Calif.).
 
- MIT executed a double steal with Chase taking home for the second run of the game in the third.
 
- As they did yesterday, WPI rallied in the fifth with RBI singles to tie the game up at two. First-year Becca O'Connor (San Antonio, Texas) kept the game tied with the go-ahead run on third with a strikeout of Alicia Salvalzo to end the inning.
 
- First-year Mikayla Cable (Valrico, Fla.) led off the sixth with a single and came around to score the go-ahead run on a single from junior Jordan Sell (Schwenksville, Pa.). The lead was short-lived as WPI tied it up in the bottom of the inning on an RBI single, but O'Connor got two strikeouts and a groundout to leave the bases loaded and the game tied at three.
 
- Alex Sheehan led off the bottom of the seventh with a single and came around to score the winning run on a single from Salvalzo to give WPI the NEWMAC Title and the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS:
 
-  Chase pitched 4.2 innings in the game and did not surrender a walk. She scattered five hits and gave up two runs with three strikeouts. For the season she has 144 Ks which is tied for the fourth-most in a single season in program history. Chase also went 2-3 at the plate with a run scored.
 
- O'Connor gave up two unearned runs on four hits with one walk and three strikeouts.
 
- Sell went 2-3 at the plate with an RBI to bring her season total to 14.
 
- MIT stole three bases in the game to give the team 74 on the season which is six shy of the single-season record of 80. The team has also totaled 214 RBI this year which is nine short of the program record for a season.
 
- As a team MIT, has a batting average of .334 which is on pace to break the previous mark of .323 that was set in 2017. They also have 70 doubles on the year which is four short of the program record and have hit 12 home runs which are three shy of the record for most in a season.

UP NEXT:

- MIT will now await to see if they earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament when the brackets are released tomorrow at 1 p.m. on NCAA.com  
 
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