Lewiston, Maine - The Bates College Bobcat softball team rode junior Kristen Finn's (Winthrop, Mass.) shutout performance to defeat the Trinity College Bantams, 3-0, this afternoon in its home opener. The Bobcats improve to 5-5 overall 1-3 in the NESCAC while stopping its five-game slide. Trinity saw its three-game win streak end, dipping to 12-7 overall and 2-2 in the division.

Finn shut out Trinity over six innings, allowing four hits and one walk and striking out two. The junior righthander gave way to sophomore Caroline Gattuso (North Reading, Mass.) after Trinity sophomore Caroline Blanchard (Norwich, Conn.) and senior  Nicole Nardella (Beverly, Mass.) both reached base to lead off the seventh inning. Gattuso struck out first-year Abby Ostrom (Carlisle, Mass.) for the inning's first out. Sophomore Amelia Mostovoy (San Francisco, Calif.) then lined an apparent single to center field, but Blanchard was thrown out at third base on a heady play by Bates junior center fielder Kelly McManus (Plymouth, N.H.), for Trinity's second out. Gattuso then induced sophomore Kerry McCarthy (Andover, Mass.) into a popout to end the threat and the game.

Bates scored its first two runs in the first inning, when junior Courtney Talcott tripled into the gap in right center to score junior Karen Ullmann (Ramsey, N.J.), who had led off with a walk and stolen second base. Junior Lauren Dobish (Chambersburg, Pa.) then drove Talcott home with a sacrifice fly ball to right field.

Trinity replaced starter Katherine Poulos (5-4) after two innings in favor of Kristen Anderson, who threw three scoreless innings before Bates added an insurance run in the sixth inning. Junior Leah Maciejewski (Tewksbury, Mass.) hit a one-out single up the middle, and came home on consecutive errors by the Bantams.

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