Game 1 Box Score
Game 2 Box Score
Photo Gallery-1 / Photo Gallery-2

BIDDEFORD, Maine -- Sydney Helmbrecht and Andrea Gosper each had four-hit afternoons as the University of New England dialed up two victories (12-4, 10-0) over Gordon College in Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) softball action Friday (Apr. 15) at Claude Dubois Field.

The Nor'easters get back in the win column and move to 17-7 overall (8-4 CCC) with the results. UNE has won its last 18 meetings with the Fighting Scots (6-19-1, 1-11 CCC).

Sydnee Bessler and Sophia Burnham secured the decisions in the circle while the bats came alive. In all, eight players for the hosts had multiple hits over the course of the doubleheader.

Big Blue took advantage of a few errors during the initial sessions of GAME 1 to lead 4-0 after the 2nd inning. UNE led 5-2 in the 4th when back-to-back RBI-singles from Amanda Vallante and Kelly Murphy padded the cushion.

Gordon got its runs in the 3rd (1), 4th (1), and 5th (2), while stranding eight runners on base during the middle four frames.

The Nor'easters registered nearly half (7) of their 17 hits in the contest during the last portion of the 6th, as every player converted and UNE tacked on the five runs necessary to end the match in six innings.

Murphy tallied a team-high three hits, and seven others evenly recorded the remaining 14 -- Vallante, Helmbrecht, Gosper, Meghan Bolano, Caroline Schoenbucher (with a triple), Abby Lambert, and Lauren Jones. Vallante and Bolano split four RBI, and together with Helmbrecht and Gosper, accounted for eight runs scored (2 each).

Bessler (4-0) struck out four and surrendered three earned runs over five innings of work.

The Fighting Scots were led by Megan Jenkerson with two hits and two RBI, which included a 3rd-inning homer over the fence in left. Emily Kline also had a pair of hits for the offense, but took the loss on the rubber.

In GAME 2, Melissa Sprague and Burnham (3-2) kept Gordon at bay while the UNE lineup provided two runs in the 2nd and another eight in the 3rd on the way to wrapping things up in five innings. Sprague fanned five against two hits and no walks over three innings; Burnham's two innings netted four strikeouts, while allowing one hit and two free passes.

Gosper had two hits and scored twice in the contest, including when she led-off the 2nd with a double and soon crossed the plate on a squeeze bunt by Anna Sessa. After the second out, Sessa came around to touch for the first of her two runs as Helmbrecht sliced a triple into the right field corner -- the first of her two RBI-hits.

Fourteen unique batters saw action in the UNE 3rd, as seven hits were compounded by three errors, a walk, and a hit-by-pitch. Bolano, Paige Moore-Haskell, and Erin Walsh had run-scoring hits during the surge.

Abigail Knowlton struck out three while conceding five earned runs in a losing effort for the Fighting Scots. One of Gordon's three hits came from Kline, giving her three on the day.

Next up for the Nor'easters is a home twinbill with Nichols College on Saturday (12 p.m.).