HARTFORD, Conn. - Junior RHP Tiffany Stowers (Burke, Va.) won both games and classmate 1B Kennedy Rogers (Pomona, Calif.) had two doubles and a two-run homer to lead the Trinity College Bantams to a 4/5-2/4 doubleheader sweep against the visiting Bates College Bobcats in New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) softball action this afternoon. Trinity improves to 11-19 overall and 6-10 in the NESCAC, keeping its chances of qualifying for the conference playoffs alive with just a home twinbill against Middlebury tomorrow at noon left to play in the regular season.  Bates drops to 14-15-1 overall and 6-10 in the league, and will look to earn a spot in the NESCAC Tourney when it hosts Williams for two games tomorrow.

Stowers outdueled Bates starter Madison Hollis in the first game, tossing a two-hitter with two strikeouts and three walks to even her season mark at 9-9 for the Bantams.  Holiis did not allow an earned run but fell to 6-7, allowing six hits with two K's in her six innings of work.  Neither offense had a hit through three innings before the Bantams scored two unearned runs in the fourth including one on an RBI double by junior 1B Kennedy Rogers (Pomona, Calif.).  The Bobcats cut their deficit in half in the fifth inning with their only run, but Trinity answered with two more in the bottom of the fifth.  Trinity senior Scarlett Gillette (Andover, Mass.) singled with one out and came around to score one of the two runs on a two-run double by junior 3B Gianna Tito (East Hanover, N.J.).  Bates scored an unearned run in the sixth, but Tito caught a liner by Rachel Liazos and doubled off a Bobcat runner at first base to end the inning. Stowers retired the side in order in the top of the seventh.

Bates led for most of the second game before Trinity scored a run in the fifth inning to tie the game at 3-3 and twice in the bottom of the sixth to take their first lead, 5-3.  Bantam sophomore OF Erin Steed (Orland Park, Ill.) hit a leadoff single and scored on an error in the fifth frame, while Stowers relieved junior righty Erin Girard (Bristol, Conn.) in the top of the sixth and got a 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts.  In the bottom of the sixth, Rogers led off with a double but pinch-runner  Annika Haley (Marblehead, Mass.) was thrown out at home trying to score from second on an infield hit by Stowers.  Two batters later, however, Trinity senior C Alyssa Gazivoda (Poughquag, N.Y.) doubled home Stowers with a blast to the center field wall and then scored on a single to left-center by Steed.  In the seventh, Bates scored a run on walk and an RBI double by Kennedy Jones, before Stowers got the final out on a strikeout to win her 10th game of the season.  Girard allowed just one earned run with four strikeouts in her five innings and Delaney Rankin was a hard-luck loser with a five-hit complete game for Bates.