If the Husson University softball team is going to win an NCAA Division III regional for the first time in school history, it is going to have to do so by coming through the loser’s bracket.
Endicott College capitalized on two Husson errors in the seventh inning, pushing across four unearned runs on Ella Tower’s two-run single and Vania Moniz’s two-run double to rally past the Eagles 7-4 at Husson’s Robert and Frances O’Keefe Softball Field in Bangor on Thursday morning.
Eight-time North Atlantic Conference champion Husson, now 36-5 after having its 15-game winning streak snapped, will face the loser of Thursday’s second game between 26-11 Colby College from Waterville and 33-9 Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Friday’s 1:30 p.m. elimination game.
Conference of New England titlist Endicott from Beverly, Massachusetts, 27-13 and winner of four in a row, will face the winner of the Colby-MIT game at 11 a.m. Friday.
The third game on the docket on Friday at 4 p.m. will pit the teams with one loss.
Saturday’s championship round will begin with an 11 a.m. game and the if-necessary game will follow.
The seven runs allowed is the most given up by Husson since losing 10-1 to Bates on April 7.
Husson took a 4-3 lead into the seventh inning of Thursday’s game, but a throwing error by shortstop Lydia Rice allowed Abby McClaflin to reach to lead off the inning for the Gulls.
She was sacrificed to second by Kylyn McLaren and McClaflin reached third on a passed ball.
Maddie Beeley walked and stole second, and senior Ella Tower singled up the middle to score McClaflin and Beeley.
Following a pop-up for the second out, third baseman Morgan Curtis’ fielding error extended the inning and junior Vania Moniz made the Eagles pay by belting a two-run double to left field.
Husson took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on Morgan Tainter’s two-out single and Rice’s run-scoring double.
Endicott answered with runs in the third with everything happening after two were out.
McClaflin and McLaren each singled and Beeley walked to load the bases. Tower singled to right to score both runners and Elyse Saccoccio followed with a run-scoring base hit.
Husson responded with three runs in the bottom of the fourth to take a 4-3 lead.
Allie Casavant drew a walk and she was sacrificed along by Curtis. Camryn King and Sophia Lynch followed with singles and Lynch drove in a run with hers. Tainter followed with a two-run triple.
Tower drove in four runs with her two singles and Saccoccio and McClaflin each had a pair of hits. Senior lefty Analise Grady came on in relief of Kristen Beebe in the third inning and tossed five innings of five-hit, three-run relief with two strikeouts and two walks to improve her record to 11-5.
Tainter had a single to go with her triple and Lynch had a pair of singles for Husson.
Junior righty Ana Lang went the distance in the circle, allowing eight hits and seven runs, three earned, with six strikeouts and a season-high six walks.
She is now 23-4.
