Back-To-Back!! UB Softball Wins Second Straight ECC Title Topping St. Thomas Aquinas, 5-4, On Saturday

Bridgeport, Conn.-For the second straight season, the University of Bridgeport softball team has captured the East Coast Conference title, as the top-seeded Purple Knights completed a two-game sweep of the third-seeded St. Thomas Aquinas College Spartans in this season's best-of-three conference championship series with a 5-4 victory on Saturday afternoon in Seaside Park after winning the opening game on Friday, 3-2, in walk-off fashion.  After winning the program's first-ever ECC regular season crown, the Purple Knights were able to play all five of their postseason games on their home field going 4-1 over the last two weekends to earn conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division II East Regional that will take place in Manchester, N.H. hosted by St. Anselm College beginning on Wednesday, May 19. UB won the program's first-ever conference title in 2019, and of course, the 2020 conference slate was cancelled by the global pandemic.

With Saturday's win, Bridgeport will head in the NCAA Championship with a 22-7 record.  After the loss, STAC is now 24-13.

After Friday's heart-stopping comeback win, the Purple Knights, playing as the visitors on Saturday, got on the board quickly scoring two runs in the top of the first on a two-out, bases loaded double by sophomore Samantha Schiebe (Monroe, Conn.).

UB extended its lead to 4-0 in the top of the fourth on an RBI-single by freshman Hayley Kim (Virginia Beach, Va.) and a base-running play that saw freshman Kiana Robinson (Hamden, Conn.) cross the plate while Kim was caught in a run-down between first and second before being eventually tagged out.

The St. Thomas Aquinas offense would come to life in the bottom of the fifth taking advantage of back-to-back walks from Tournament Most Outstanding Player Kaite Burawski (Hartley, Del.), as two Spartans crossed the plate on a double to left-center by Carissa Della Vecchia, but that was all the damaged STAC could muster in the frame, as Burawski buckled down aided by a key defensive play from right fielder Samantha Ferreri (Hauppauge, N.Y.), who gunned down a potential base runner at first to prevent a hit after a line drive into the outfield.

Bridgeport was able to add an insurance run in the top of the seventh inning that proved to be the difference in the game when senior Elyssa Marmolejo (Rialto, Calf.) was able to race from first to home with two outs on an RBI-single by sophomore Taylor Yates (Elk Grove, Calif.) that just tipped off the top of the Spartans' right fielders' glove.

St. Thomas Aquinas would not go quietly trailing 5-2 entering its final at bat, as with one out, Carissa Della Vecchia singled to left and would score when the next batter Amanda Castro doubled and took third on the throw to the plate.  Castro would score immediately when Amanda Schweitzer singled to right to make the score 5-4.  Burawski would then regroup to induce the next two batters to pop out on the infield and the celebration was on for the Purple Knights, who held on for the win.

Burawski, who fired every pitch over the two weekends for her team, raised her season record 15-3 with Saturday's victory, as she worked her fifteenth complete game of 2021, in which she allowed seven hits, four runs (all earned) with eight strike outs and six walks.

Della Vecchia started and took the loss for STAC working only 0.2 innings, in which she allowed two runs on one hit with three bases on balls.  Senior Paige Toothaker pitched well in relief for the Spartans working 6.1 innings, allowing three runs on five hits with four strikeouts on issuing two walks.

This season's NCAA appearance will be the fourth in the Bridgeport softball program's history, as UB previously advanced to the NCAAs in 1988, 1898 and 2019.

The pairings for this season's NCAA Division II Softball Championship will be announced on NCAA.com at 10:00 p.m. on Sunday evening.