UB And St. Thomas Aquinas Battle To ECC Softball Split

Bridgeport, Conn.-The University of Bridgeport and St. Thomas Aquinas College put on quite a show of excellent East Coast Conference softball in Seaside Park on Saturday to decide the top two seeds in next week's ECC Championship Tournament, as the Purple Knights and Spartans split the two game with UB taking game one, 5-0, and STAC winning game two, 6-3, in eight innings. With the split, St. Thomas Aquinas will be the number seed in the ECC Championship and Bridgeport will be the number seed.  UB is now 33-14 overall and finishes the regular season at 17-7 in conference play.  The Spartans are 26-19 overall and 18-5 in the ECC.

In game one, junior Kaite Burawski (Hartly, Del.) dominated in the pitching circle, as she fired a two-hit shutout, her tenth shutout of the season, allowing just two hits with 16 strikeouts and only two walks to raise her season record to 22-5.

In the opener, junior Taylor Yates (Elk Grove, Calif.) belted her tenth home run of the season, and she would go deep again in game two to her 11 long balls on the year.

Freshman Madison D'Amato (Warwick, R.I.) had two hits and two runs batted in for the winners in game one.

Junior Samantha Schiebe (Monroe, Conn.) and sophomore Hailey Kim (Virginia Beach, Va.) also had two hits for the Purple Knights in their victory.

Looking for sweep in the nightcap to force STAC into a must win game against Queens tomorrow if they were swept, Bridgeport again turned to Burawski in the circle, and she delivered a tough as nails performance going the distance and fanning 12 more batters, as she allowed six runs (five earned) over eight innings.

Down to their last out in the bottom of the seventh inning, UB tied the game at 3-3 on three clutch singles by senior Kaira Ramon (Stamford, Conn.), Taylor Yates and an-RBI hit by sophomore Kiana Robinson (Hamden, Conn.).  All three of those players had two hits in game two.

Up next, UB will host Molloy, the number three seed in the ECC Championship, on Wednesday afternoon in Seaside Park.  STAC will host number four seed Mercy that same afternoon.  After Wednesday, all four teams will move to play on Friday and Saturday at St. Thomas Aquinas to decide the 2022 East Coast Conference Champion who will receive an automatic bid to the 2022 NCAA Division II Championship Tournament.  The ECC Championship is a double-elimination affair.