WORCESTER -- Friday night's NEWMAC-opening doubleheader ended in an Engineer split as the WPI softball team earned a game one victory while MIT eked out a win in the finale. 
 
WPI (9-5, 1-1 NEWMAC) struck early in game one, hanging on for the 11-9 win while MIT (9-3, 1-1) was able to earn an extra-inning, comeback win, 6-5 win in game two. 
 
Naomi Boldebuck (Billerica, MA) went 1-1 on the day picking up the win in the first game, as the middle of three WPI pitchers, finishing with 4.1 innings of action, seven hits and seven earned runs and a strikeout. Kaitlyn Barr (Grosse Pointe Woods, MI) earned the save in the game, her first of the season, throwing 1.2 innings to close things out while allowing just a pair of hits. Boldebuck, then threw the final 1.2 innings of action, came into game two to close out the seventh inning, but allowed the ultimate game-winner in extra innings. 
 
WPI put together 12 hits in game one with four Engineers finishing with multi-hit efforts. Sandy Fairbairn (Norton, MA) went 2-for-3 scoring three runs of her own while driving in another. Emma Nagy (Monroe, WA) was also 2-for-3 with two runs scored and two RBIs while Virginia McKinney (Larchmont, NY) was 2-for-4 on the day with two runs scored and Meg Sherwood (Norfolk, MA) was a perfect 2-for-2 with a run scored. 
 
In game two, McKinney added another pair of hits, two RBIs and a run scored while Destiny Lum (Kahalu'u, HI) was 2-for-3 with two runs scored and two RBIs and Riley O'Brien (Wynantskill, NY) went 2-for-4 with an RBI. 
 
GAME ONE 
MIT got things going with a pair of runs in the top of the first inning, but WPI answered back, and more, in the bottom half of the frame. McKinney started things off with a single to third and moved up on a Fairbairn bunt single. A Nagy double to right center brought around McKinney while O'Brien added a sacrifice fly to even the score. One batter later, Colleen Mayer (Hillsborough, NJ) doubled to center to make it a 3-2 game.
 
A two-run blast in the second put MIT back on top momentarily before WPI answered in the bottom half of the frame once again. Sherwood singled up the middle, moving to second on a sacrifice bunt and to third on a ground out. The Engineers were able to take advantage of an MIT miscue to even things at four-apiece. Lum then reached on another MIT error as Fairbairn moved over to third on the same play, coming home on a wild pitch to make it a 5-4 game. 
 
In the bottom of the fourth, WPI piled on five runs first as Fairbairn drove in McKinney on a single up the middle and then as O'Brien roped a bases clearing double to left field that gave WPI a 10-4 lead. Another wild pitch made it an 11-4 game, giving the Engineers a lead they wouldn't relinquish despite a five-run sixth inning by the visiting Engineers. 
 
MIT threatened in the seventh as well but Barr was able to lock things down to come away with the conference opening win. 
 
GAME TWO 
The second game started off much like the first with MIT putting up a pair of runs in the top half of the inning and WPI responding. Back-to-back bunts to start the inning put McKinney in scoring position for Lum who doubled to right center, driving in the first run of the day. Lum reached third on an MIT fielding error and came around to score on an O'Brien single to left to even the score at two-all. 
 
In the second MIT earned a 3-2 lead, adding another run in the fourth inning make it a 4-2 game. Lum cut that lead in half with one swing of the bat sending a solo shot to left in the fifth and a triple to right field by McKinney drove in a pair of runs and put WPI on top 5-4. 
 
However, MIT was able to even the score in the top of the seventh as Arianna Kumar (San Diego, CA) doubled to left to send the game to extra innings. 
 
In the top of the eighth, a two-out single to left by Nicole Johnston (St. Charles, IL) gave MIT the 6-5 advantage and in the bottom half of the frame, WPI was not able to push Ariana Kreuzer (Walpole, MA) home from third falling in the final game of the day.
 
UP NEXT 
WPI will return to the diamond on Thursday, April 3 at 3pm with a conference doubleheader at Emerson College while MIT travels to Endicott on Wednesday, April 2 for a doubleheader also beginning at 3pm.