Senior Kait Mendall pitched a four-hitter in defeat in today's NE-10 Tournament loss to AIC in Springfield.

NE-10 TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND
#6 AIC Advances Past #7 Stonehill
with Walk-Off Win

Rousseau's one-out RBI single in bottom of seventh lifts Yellow Jackets

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (May 4, 2010) – Sixth-seeded American International College advanced to this weekend's double-elimination Northeast-10 Conference Championship round with a walk off 1-0 victory over seventh-seeded Stonehill College in first round action of the 2010 Northeast-10 Softball Championships at Judy Groff Field this afternoon.

Sophomore Kristen Dolan (Norwood, Mass./Norwood) fired a four-hit shutout in the circle for American International, striking out nine and walking two over seven innings to pick up the win (12-9).

Freshman Laura Rousseau (Chicopee, Mass./Chicopee Comprehensive) smacked the deciding hit with her single to left in the bottom of the seventh to score sophomore Ashleigh St. Peter (Gill, Mass./Turners Falls) with the lone run of the game. St. Peter led off the inning with a double to right center and was sacrificed to third leading up to Rousseau's game-winning hit.

The run was the first in over 22 innings of play for AIC in three games against Stonehill this season, but was enough to send the Yellow Jackets through to this weekend's double-elimination round of the NE-10 Championships. The Skyhawks swept the regular season series with 4-0 and 1-0 (9-innings) victories here at Groff Field on April 10.

Freshman Casey Remick had two of the Skyhawks four hits on the afternoon.

American International (25-24, 17-13 NE-10) will face third-seeded Le Moyne College (22-18, 20-10 NE-10) on Friday at the University of New Haven at 11 a.m. Stonehill, which was making just its third postseason appearance in program history and second in three years, concludes its season with a 20-19-1 record overall, 15-13 in NE-10 play, under first year head coach Ken LeGrice.

Rousseau finished 1-for-3 for AIC with the RBI, while St. Peter was also 1-for-3 with the double and run scored. Junior Becky Dion (Raynham, Mass./Bridgewater-Raynham) hit 1-for-2 with the sac bunt to put St. Peter on third in the seventh.

Senior Kait Mendall (Middleboro, Mass./Coyle & Cassidy), who fired a two-hit shutout over nine innings against AIC in April, was nearly as effective in the losing effort (6-6) for Stonehill, yielding just the one earned run on four hits with three strikeouts and three walks over 6.1 innings. She retired the first eight batters of the game, which was halted twice for a total of an hour and 14-minutes for weather, and didn't allow a hit until a leadoff single by Dion, who was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double.

Freshman Casey Remick (Norton, Mass./Norton) led Stonehill as she hit 2-for-3. Senior Kristen Clark (Brockton, Mass./Brockton) finished 1-for-2 with a walk.

Remick was involved in both of Stonehill's scoring chances. The first came in the top of the fourth when she singled to right with one out and advanced to second on an outfield error on the play. Dolan stranded her there with back-to-back strikeouts to end the threat. Remick singled with two out in the sixth, reaching second again on an error. She moved to third on a passed ball, but Dolan got another strikeout to end the inning.