Bridgeport Nipped By St. Anselm, 3-1, In NCAA Opener

Bridgeport Nipped By St. Anselm, 3-1, In NCAA Opener

Manchester, N.H. - Making the program's first NCAA Division II National Championship Tournament appearance in 30 years, the number eight seed, University of Bridgeport softball team fell to the host and top-seeded St. Anselm College Hawks, 3-1, in the opening game of the 2019 NCAA East Regional One in Manchester, New Hampshire. UB is now 33-15 overall, and St. Anselm moves onto the Winner's Bracket with a 38-8 mark.

Bridgeport will now face the loser of Thursday's second game between Southern New Hampshire and Georgian Court in an elimination game at 12:30 p.m.

Bridgeport took a 1-0 lead on Thursday on a solo home run by junior Allison Luzzi (East Haven, Conn.) in the top of the third inning, her sixth homer of the season. The Hawks tied the game with an unearned in the bottom of the third and took a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the fourth on a two-out, two-RBI double by junior Maggie Mason.

Graduate student Amanda Staheli (Pecatonica, Ill.) took the loss on Friday to move to 19-6 on the season, as she allowed three runs (two earned) on eight hits with one strikeout and one walk.

Junior Morgan Perry allowed only three hits with eight stakeouts to earn the victory for St. Anselm.

Along with Luzzi's home run, the Purple Knights got hits from junior Kaira Ramon (Stamford, Conn.) and sophomore Elyssa Marmolejo (Rialto, Calif.) on Thursday.

Provided by the Bridgeport Sports Information Department.