UB Softball Edged By Top-Seeded Wilmington, 3-2, To Open Double-Elimination Portion Of CACC Championship

Lakewood, N.J.-The fourth-seeded University of Bridgeport softball team gave the top-seeded Wilmington (Del.) University Wildcats all they could handle in the opening game of the double-elimination portion of the 2023 Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Softball Championship being hosted by Georgian Court University on a cool and soggy Thursday afternoon, as Wilmington held on for a 3-2 win over the Purple Knights.  UB (29-22) will now play again later this afternoon at approximately 4:00 p.m. in a must-win, elimination bracket game against the loser of Thursday's second game that will feature number two-seeded Caldwell versus number three-seeded Georgian Court.  Wilmington moves onto Friday's semifinals with a 36-12 record.

The Wildcats jumped out to an early 2-0 with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first inning and added one more tally in the fifth before the Purple Knights made things interesting capitalizing on two Wildcats errors in the seventh inning to score their two runs, but unfortunately UB could not push across the tying run as the top seed held on for the win.

Freshman Vise Zarate (Cypress, Calf.) pitched well but took the loss for Bridgeport allowing three runs (two earned) over 4.2 innings of work in which she allowed six hits with three strikeouts and no walks.  Zarate is now 19-9 on the season.

Sophomore Erin Lifrieri (Seymour, Conn.) did an excellent job out of the UB bullpen blanking the Wildcats in 1.1 innings in the circle without allowing a hist and fanning a pair of batters.

Madison D'Amato (So., Warwick, R.I.) led a six-hit offensive attack for the Purple Knights with two hits.

PHOTO BY CLARUS MULTIMEDIA