United States Coast Guard Academy - Department of Athletics - Game 3

NEW LONDON, CONN.—Junior All-American Hayley Feindel fired a one-hit shutout with 12 strikeouts and top-seeded Coast Guard, ranked fourth nationally, scratched a run across in the bottom of the seventh on a fielder’s choice to to run its win streak to 15 and beat fifth-seeded Wheaton 1-0 in Game 3 of the New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Softball Tournament.

It was a pitchers’ duel between Feindel and Wheaton freshman Allison Baker. Wheaton sophomore Amanda Drury broke up Feindel’s perfect game with an infield single to shortstop with two outs in the sixth inning. The only player to hit the ball out of the infield was senior Nicole DeRosa who lined out to center in the second inning.

Feindel was dominant as she struck out 10 of the first 11 batters she faced and became just the fourth player in Division III history to register over 1,100 strikeouts. She finished the game with 1,104 career strikeouts and improved to 31-1 on the season. She leads the nation in wins (31), shutouts (22) and strikeouts (355).

Baker, who threw a two-hitter in Wheaton’s 8-0 win over fourth-seeded Babson in the first game of the day, allowed just a pair of singles. Coast Guard junior Jamie Kim singled in the third, the Bears only base runner until the bottom of the seventh.

Sophomore Holli Bastinck had a one-out single before sophomore Catherine Walker hit a comebacker that Baker threw into centerfield allowing the runners to advance to second and third. Sophomore Megan Cook then hit a ground ball to first and Bastinck broke for home on contact and beat the throw to give the Bears the dramatic win.

Baker (14-11) walked one and struck out one in taking the tough luck loss for Wheaton.

Wheaton (19-17) will play sixth-seeded Clark, a 4-1 loser to #3 Wellesley, on Friday at 2 p.m. at Coast Guard (32-1) in an elimination game while Coast Guard will take on second-seeded Springfield, a 6-1 winner over #3 Wellesley, at 4:30 in the winners’ bracket final following that game.