Norton, MA --- The WPI softball team finished the regular season with a bang, sweeping Wheaton on Friday afternoon by scores of 9-0 and 6-2. 
 
With the sweep, the Engineers (24-14, 13-7 NEWMAC) secured a top-4 finish in the NEWMAC standings and will await its official seeding after regular season play concludes tomorrow. Wheaton (24-12, 9-9) remains in the top six and will continue play in the NEWMAC Championship next week. 
 
Naomi Boldebuck (Billerica, MA) earned her 15th and 16th victories of the season on the day. In game one, she pitched all five innings of action, earning her fifth shutout of the season. Boldebuck allowed just four hits, striking out a pair while slinging just 63 pitches. In game two, Boldebuck also went the distance, with the game potentially determining seeding in the playoffs, throwing all seven innings of action, allowing just two runs, another four hits and striking out five. 
 
Meg Sherwood (Norfolk, MA) starred in the first game of the day with a 2-for-3 outing, driving in a pair of runs and scoring another. In game two, Riley O'Brien (Wynantskill, NY) finished with a 3-for-4 day from the plate including a pair of doubles and a roundtripper as she accounted for three of WPI's six runs in the game. 
 
GAME ONE 
Game one was a five inning, run-rule shutout victory for the Engineers as they picked up their eighth run-rule win of the year. 
 
Both teams were held scoreless for the first three innings of action until WPI opened up the scoring in the fourth by piling on three runs. Destiny Lum (Kahalu'u, HI) walked to start things off and O'Brien put runners on second and third with a double to center. Sandy Fairbairn (Norton, MA) walked to load the bases and after a pair of outs, Ariana Kreuzer (Walpole, MA) reached on an error that allowed O'Brien to score for the first run of the game. 
 
Emma Nagy (Monroe, WA) followed that up with a single to left to add another run to the total and Sherwood beat out an infield single which allowed the third run of the inning to cross the plate. 
 
In the fifth, WPI piled on even more runs in a six-run inning highlighted by a two-run Sherwood double. Virginia McKinney (Larchmont, NY) reached on an error to start things off, moving to second on a Lum single and O'Brien walked to load the bases. Fairbairn came through with a single up the middle that scored a run, Colleen Mayer (Hillsborough, NJ), in her second plate appearance with the bases loaded, this time singled up the middle to put up the fifth run of the day and Nagy sent a sac fly to center to make it a 6-0 game. 
 
With runners on second and third, Sherwood ripped a double to give the Engineers their 8-0 advantage and Lucy Latour (North Dighton, MA) finished with a double of her own to make it a 9-0 game. 
 
In the bottom half of the frame, Boldebuck shut down the Lyons to pick up the first win of the day. 
 
GAME TWO 
Game two saw another win for the Engineers, but WPI was able to get on the board early putting up three runs in the first inning of action. 
 
Latour started things off reaching on an error and made it all the way to third to begin the game as McKinney followed after getting hit by a pitch to put runners on the corners. Lum singled to the pitcher putting one run on the board and runners on first and second which prompted an early pitching change. 
 
O'Brien reached on a fielder's choice and both she and Lum moved up a bag on a wild pitch, scoring as Fairbairn got to first on a Wheaton miscue that allowed both Engineer runners in scoring position to cross the plate for the 3-0 lead. 
 
In the third, WPI added another run to the board as Kreuzer came through with a sacrifice fly that brought home Lum. 
 
It wasn't until the fourth inning where Wheaton was able to net its first, and only, runs of the day to make it a 4-2 ball game, but WPI answered back in the fifth with a run via another Kreuzer sacrifice fly, this time bringing home Amelia Davis (New Bedford, MA). 
 
O'Brien added an insurance run with her seventh homer of the year, a solo shot to center, as WPI ended the regular season on a high point with the 6-2 win. 
 
UP NEXT
While WPI has completed the regular season, playing its originally scheduled doubleheader with Babson scheduled for Saturday on Thursday due to the threat of weather, Wheaton wraps its NEWMAC slate with a 10am Saturday doubleheader at Emerson.  Oddly enough, it appears the Engineers, who have secured the tournament's fourth seed in the double elimination portion of the NEWMAC Tournament, will face either the Lyons or Lions at 2:30pm Wednesday at top-seeded MIT.