PHOTO GALLERY
MANCHESTER, N.H. – Junior second baseman Nahtali Simpson (West Orange, N.J./West Orange) drilled her third home run of the season landing it on top of the batting cages as the New Haven softball team saw its season come to a close on Thursday evening with a 5-1 loss to No. 3 seed Adelphi in an NCAA East Region Championship elimination game. The Chargers close out the 2021 campaign with a 28-9 overall mark.
Simpson was one of four total hits against the Panthers with two of the remaining three coming from junior shortstop Mya Case (Syracuse, N.Y/West Genessee) who closed out the contest 2-for-4 at the plate, both of her hits being singles. Rounding out the Chargers offense was left fielder Ellie Frederick (Sunapee, N.H./Sunapee) who sent a single up the middle looking to extend a sixth inning rally that began with Simpson's home run.
In the circle, junior Ava Fitzmaurice (Greenville, N.Y./Greenville) suffered the defeat, throwing her 21st complete game of the season as she closes out the year with a 21-5 overall record and an impressive 1.05 earned run average across 179.1 innings of work. Overall against Adelphi, she surrendered five runs, three of which were earned, on seven hits and three walks while registering one strikeout.
Adelphi opened up its scoring in the early going, plating three runs across the first and second innings. In the opening frame, it was a lead-off single that started things off for the Panthers, while the run crossed the plate on a double steal with runners on the corner.
In the second inning, the Panthers added two more runs courtesy of a leadoff walk and three singles in the frame, before the Chargers tamped out the threat with a line drive double play with Simpson leaping to catch a line drive that was over her head and firing over to first to catch the runner off the bag.
Adelphi added two more runs before the Chargers were able to break up the shutout, taking a 5-0 advantage on a pair of unearned runs in the fourth inning. A double, error and single up the middle was all the offense the Panthers would need in that frame.
Simpson then broke through the Panthers starting pitcher Lindsay Hibbs in the sixth inning as she read the pitch perfectly and lifted a no-doubter over the fence in left field, stranding the ball on top of the batting cages at South Athletic Field on the campus of Saint Anselm College.
The Chargers looked for a late seventh inning rally when Case beat out an infield hit to the shortstop with two outs. However, the Panthers managed to force a high chopper that bounced off home plate on the next at bat as the catcher completed the 2-3 putout, ending the Chargers 2021 campaign.
