NEWTON, Mass. – The Lasell College baseball and softball teams learned their post-season opponents Tuesday afternoon with the completion of the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) regular season schedule around New England.
The Lasers softball team wound up in a tie for eighth place in the GNAC with Norwich University, and won the tiebreaker over the Cadets to earn its first playoff berth since 2011. Eighth-seeded Lasell, 11-25 overall and 10-14 in the GNAC, will travel to fifth-seeded Albertus Magnus College (22-15, 15-9) on Wednesday, May 2, for a 4:00 p.m. single-elimination contest after the Falcons finished in a four-way tie for third place with Simmons College, Saint Joseph's College (Maine) and the University of Saint Joseph (Conn.).
The 10 conference wins for the Lasers this spring is the most in a season since 2011, and the 11 overall wins is the most since 2014. Lasell split the regular season doubleheader against its first-round opponent in the first GNAC games of the season on March 31, winning the nightcap 4-0 after Albertus Magnus took the opener, 8-2.
The Laser baseball team finished in a tie for fourth place with Norwich, and won the tiebreaker over the Cadets to earn home-field advantage for the first-round, single-elimination game on Wednesday, May 2. Lasell will host Norwich in that game at 5:30 p.m. at Stein Field on the campus of Brandeis University. Lasell and Norwich split a doubleheader there back on April 14, the Cadets taking the opener 2-0 and the Lasers winning the nightcap, 3-0.
Lasell won the single-elimination game over Albertus Magnus in last year's GNAC playoffs, and went 1-2 in the double-elimination portion of the tournament with a win over Saint Joseph's (Maine) sandwiched between losses to Suffolk University and Johnson & Wales University.
The GNAC Baseball Championships will concludes with games Saturday and Sunday, May 5-6, at Saint Joseph's College (Maine) while the GNAC Softball Championships will crown a winner the same days at top-seeded Suffolk University. The GNAC champions receive automatic berths into the NCAA Division III Championship Tournaments.
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