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Box Score 2 NORTHAMPTON, Mass. – The Smith College softball team split a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) doubleheader with MIT on Tuesday afternoon as the Pioneers walked off with game one, 3-2, in eight innings and the Engineers held on for a 6-4 victory in game two.
Smith (8-3, 2-2 NEWMAC), who has now won as many games as last season, defeated MIT (4-8, 1-1 NEWMAC) for the first time since April 14, 2009.
Edie Richardson (Franklin, Mass./Fontbonne Academy) drove in all three runs in the opener with a 2-RBI double in the sixth and the game-winning sacrifice fly in the eighth.
Caroline Kushner (Cheshire, Conn./Cheshire) represented the first and third tally while
Brittney Blokker (Seattle, Wash./Ballard) crossed the dish to even the game. Blokker added a pair of stolen bases while
Tori Brown (New Market, Md./Linganore) and
Joanna Giordano (South Salem, N.Y./John Jay) each had a pair of hits.
Gina Martucci (Pompton Plains, N.J./Pequannock Township) yielded one earned run on four hits and struck out four in a combined seven inning effort while Brown tossed a scoreless sixth inning.
Ali Trueworthy, K.K. Wopat and Natalie Shifflet each doubled as Sarah Van Bellegham and Tori Jensen singled for the Engineers. Ellie Fodor did not allow an earned run on seven hits while striking out nine.
Martucci and the Pioneers set down the first eight batters before Shiflet dropped a two-out double down the left field line in the third. Martucci then struck out the next batter to leave the runner in scoring position.
After Blokker reached on a two-out single up the middle in the first, the Engineers set down 12 of the next 13 batters which began with Fodor fanning four in-a-row.
MIT took the initial lead in the fourth as Jensen reached on a dropped fly ball and scored courtesy of an infield miscue. Wopat and Trueworthy strung together a pair of doubles in the fifth to give the Engineers a 2-0 lead.
Kushner, who made a spectacular diving grab to record the second out of the fifth, opened the home half of the sixth with a single to center field. She stole second and reached third on an infield miscue before being driven in, along with Blokker, courtesy of Richardson's 2-RBI double to tie the game.
The Engineers went down in order in the seventh while the Pioneers left a runner stranded on third. Trueworthy, placed on second per the international tiebreaker, was gunned down at the plate to keep the game knotted at 2-all.
Blokker moved Kushner, who was placed on second, to third with a sacrifice bunt to setup the sacrifice fly by Richardson to end the game.
The second game saw
Allison Snyder (Succasunna, N.J./Roxbury) go 2-for-3 with a triple and Brown hit a double.
Natalie Burchat (Shrewsbury, Mass./Shrewsbury) surrendered one earned run on seven hits while Brown allowed two runs on eight hits in relief.
Wopat went 2-for-3 with a double and three RBI as Jensen and Karly McLaughlin batted 2-for-4 with a double for MIT. McLaughlin also scored twice while Fodor and Mackenzie Donnelly also had a 2-for-4 day at the plate. Donnelly picked up the win as she allowed two earned runs on seven hits in the first 6 2/3 as Fodor struck out the only batter she faced.
MIT took a 1-0 lead with an unearned run in the second. The Engineers added three more in the third as Jensen's RBI double made it 2-0 before Wopat used a 2-RBI double to make it a 4-0 ballgame. The Engineers tacked on two more in the fifth as Donnelly used a run-producing single and Wopat lifted a sacrifice fly to center field.
The Pioneers kept an MIT run off the board in the top of the sixth as Brown fielded the ball and teamed with Zimmerman to erase Fodor at the plate. Snyder put the first Pioneer run up in the bottom of the sixth as she tripled in Blokker. Martucci followed with a single to center to plate Snyder.
Smith continued to rally in the seventh as Zimmerman and Kushner touched home with two outs before Fodor shut the door for the Engineers.
Both squads continue NEWMAC action tomorrow as the Pioneers entertain Clark while MIT travels to Babson. First pitches are slated for 3:00 p.m.
