Box Score

BEVERLY, Mass. -- Junior pitcher Jenna Bortolotti (Milton, Mass.) fired a two-hitter to help top-seeded Endicott College advance to the championship round of the 2010 The Commonwealth Coast Conference championship with 2-0 shutout of second-seeded University of England in a winners' bracket game played Friday afternoon.

The seven-time defending conference champion Gulls (27-10-1) will need just one win tomorrow (May 1) to claim yet another TCCC crown. The Nor'easters (25-13) will look to keep their title hopes alive tomorrow when they take on No. 3 Western New England College, which staved off elimination by rallying to defeat Anna Maria College, 9-6. The UNE/WNEC game to be played on the Endicott campus is scheduled to start at 10 a.m.

Bortolotti and UNE sophomore Erin Lyons (Salem, N.H.) traded zeroes until the bottom of the fifth when senior Sarah Spaziano (Norton, Mass.) blasted a one-out homer to center field to give the Gulls a 1-0 advantage.

Endicott would add an insurance run in the home half of the sixth, putting together an uprising after the first two batters were retired. Senior Merry MacDonald (Braintree, Mass.) singled and advanced to third on a UNE outfield error. After a walk to junior Hayley Hovhanessian (Farmington, Conn.), first-year Nicole Devlin (Dudley, Mass.) delivered a single to right-center to make the score 2-0.

Bortolotti, the TCCC Pitcher of the Year, made the lead stand up to run her record to 19-5. She walked one and struck out five in registering her eighth shutout.

Lyons (10-8) was a tough-luck loser for Big Blue. She allowed six hits and one earned run while walking two and fanning four.

Senior Jenn Waldecker (Hooksett, N.H.) and first-year Casey Brigham (New London, Conn.) each had a single to account for UNE's offense.