WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Middlebury College softball team’s season came to an end with three losses at NESCAC West rival Williams this past weekend. The Panthers finished at 21-11, 5-7 in league play.
The Panthers entered the weekend with a chance to qualify for the NESCAC playoffs, but almost certainly needed to sweep the first-place Ephs (29-8, 11-2). Instead, Amherst (23-10, 7-5) became the second NESCAC West team in the four-team league championship tournament.
On Friday, Williams defeated the Panthers, 4-3, scoring the winning run in the bottom of the seventh after Middlebury had rallied from a 3-1 deficit to tie the game. Williams homered twice early on and added an unearned run in the fifth, while Middlebury scored first in the fourth inning on a single by Carlyn Vachow, her stolen base, and a single by Hye-Jin Kim.
The Panthers knotted the game at 3-3 in the top of the sixth when Sarah Freyre delivered a two-run pinch-hit homer following a double by Erin Giles. But a walk, an error and an Eph single doomed the Panthers in the seventh.
Allison Quigley (9-2) took the loss, allowing two runs on two hits in 3.1 innings. Neve Stearns started and gave up two runs in three innings.   
On Saturday, Williams swept a doubleheader, 3-2 in nine innings in the opening game and 11-3 in six in the nightcap. 
The Panthers scored in the opener on a Giles double and a Freyre grounder in the fifth, and Freyre hit a game-tying sacrifice fly to score Emma Hamilton in the seventh. But the Ephs ended any Panther playoff hopes with a walkoff homer in the ninth.
Quigley tossed the first four innings and gave up one run. Irene Margiotta yielded one run in three innings, while Stearns (5-6) took the loss, allowing one run in an inning.
In the second game, Jackie Stern, Hamilton, Giles, Vachow and Ali Della Volpe each recorded hits, while Quigley (9-3) took the loss in the circle, throwing a third of an inning.