UB Softball Moves Onto ECC Championship Saturday With A 4-2 Win Over St. Thomas Aquinas

Sparkill, N.Y.-The second-seeded University of Bridgeport softball team picked up a 4-2 win over the top-seeded St. Thomas Aquinas College Spartans on a rainy Friday morning in Rockland County to advance to Championship Saturday in the 2022 East Coast Conference Softball Championship Tournament.  The Purple Knights, who are now 35-15 overall this season, need one victory on Saturday to capture the team's third straight ECC crown.  UB will take on Molloy, who beat Mercy and St. Thomas Aquinas on Friday, and the Lions must defeat Bridgeport twice to take home the conference title and an automatic bid to the 2022 NCAA Division II National Championship Tournament.  STAC is now 28-20 overall.

Bridgeport junior Kaite Burawski (Hartly, Del.) moved her season record to 24-6 in the pitching circle with a gutsy performance against the host Spartans, as she rebounded from allowing a leadoff home run to Emilie Olivier to fire a complete game three-hitter, in which she fanned 15 batters and allowed four walks.  STAC's other run crossed the plate on a bases load walk to Amanda Demmerle in the bottom of the second, and from then on, Burawski blanked the host school on just two hits.  Burawski now has whiffed double-digit batter in 18 outings so far this season.

Bridgeport got on the board quickly on Friday morning scoring two runs in the top of the first on sacrifice flies by senior Kaira Ramon (Stamford, Conn.) and junior Taylor Yates (Elk Grove, Calif.).

Yates would then drive home what proved to be the game-winning run with a two-out RBI-double to right-centerfield that scored freshman Madison D'Amato (Warwick, R.I.) from first base.

The Purple Knights added an insurance run on their third sacrifice fly of the game off the bat off freshman Kalea Faulk (Corning, N.Y.) in the top of the sixth.