Purple Knights Stay Alive In 2023 CACC Softball Championship With A 5-1 Triumph Over Caldwell

Lakewood, N.J.-The fourth-seeded University of Bridgeport softball team stayed alive in the 2023 Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Softball Championship Tournament being hosted by Georgian Court University late on Thursday afternoon with a gritty 5-1 victory over the second-seeded Caldwell University Cougars.  UB advances into day two of the double-elimination portion of the tournament and will face another must-win game at 1:30 p.m. against the loser of Friday's winners' bracket tilt that will take place at 11:00 a.m. between top-seeded Wilmington (Del.) University and number three seed Georgian Court University.  The Purple Knights head in Friday with a 30-22 record, and Caldwell ends its CACC Tournament run at 35-17.

The Bridgeport softball program has now won at least 30 games in back-to-back seasons, and the Purple Knights have also won 30 games in the last three full seasons, as the 2021 season was limited to conference games only; and the 2020 year was ended by the CoVID pandemic.

Trailing 1-0 entering the top of the third inning, UB plated all five of their runs in the contest in that frame, as sophomore Madison D'Amato (Warwick, R.I.) and senior Meg McFarland (Monroe, Conn.) drove in runs, and the Purple Knights scored three runs off Cougars' errors.

McFarland, Taylor Yates (Sr., Elk Grove, Calif.), Gabby Simms (Grad., Phoenixville, Pa.) and Hailey Kim (Jr., Virginia Beach, Va.), each had two hits apiece in an 11-hit Bridgeport attack in the win.

UB outhit Caldwell, 11-4, on the day, as senior Samantha Schiebe (Monroe, Conn.) was simply outstanding in the pitching circle to raise her season record to 10-9, as after allowing a run in the first, she blanked Caldwell over the next five innings, allowing just four hits with no walks and one strikeout.

Sophomore Erin Lifrieri (Seymour, Conn.) worked a perfect seventh inning to close out the Purple Knights' triumph.