Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 NEW LONDON, Conn. – The Smith College softball team split a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) doubleheader with Coast Guard courtesy of a 2-0 win and an 8-0 (5 inn.) setback and, in the process, earned their first NEWMAC Softball Championship tournament berth since 2008 on Saturday.
Smith improved to 15-11 overall and finished conference play with an 8-10 record. Coast Guard is now 14-18 (7-11 NEWMAC) on the year.
The victory in game one marked the first time that Smith has beaten Coast Guard since an 11-2, five inning, triumph on April 19, 2008, snapping a string of 11 straight wins by the Bears in the series.
Smith pushed across the game's first run of the day in the bottom of the fifth inning and that would be all they would need as the Pioneers rode a two-hitter from sophomore
Gina Martucci (Pompton Plains, N.J./Pequannock Township) to a 2-0 game one victory over Coast Guard.
The Pioneers threatened all game, leaving 11 runners on base, but it took until the fifth inning to break through against Coast Guard starter Kristine Kahl.
Tori Brown (New Market, Md./Linganore) reached on a throwing error on a sacrifice bunt with nobody out to put runners on the corners for the Pioneers. After a fielder's choice saw Morgan Kingston gun down
Brittney Blokker (Seattle, Wash./Ballard) (2-for-4, RBI) at the plate, runners were left on first and second for Smith. Two batters later, with the bases loaded, Martucci (3-for-3, RBI) helped her own cause with an RBI-single to left to plate the game's first run.
Smith would add an insurance run in the sixth.
Joanna Giordano (South Salem, N.Y./John Jay) led off the inning with a bunt single to third and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by
Ruth Zimmerman (Edison, N.J./John P. Stevens). She would come in to score two pitches later when Blokker laced a double over the head of Kelsey Gray in right to chase home Giordano for a 2-0 lead.
Martucci took a no-hitter into the bottom of the seventh but Cherokee Strickland greeted her with a single to left to start the inning. Things got real interesting when Kaitlin Ward followed Strickland with a double to the wall in right center to set up runners on second and third with nobody out. Smith then surprised everyone by moving the infield in to try to cut off the run at the plate. Martucci would recover after the back-to-back hits and induce groundouts by Erin Reynolds and Hannah Ingerson before getting Gray on a called third strike to end the game.
Martucci took the win for the Pioneers to improve to 13-4 on the season. She went the distance, allowing just two hits without issuing a walk, striking out five in the victory. Kahl (8-8) was the tough-luck loser for the Bears despite pitching well. She allowed two runs, just one earned, on 10 hits and two walks.
Sarah Sorensen made sure an offensive explosion by Coast Guard would stand up as she tallied a four-hit shutout, her second in as many games, as the Bears earned a split with an 8-0 five-inning victory over Smith in game two.
Coast Guard opened the scoring in the top of the first, thrilled to see a new pitcher following the dominance of Martucci in game one. Morgan Kingston (2-for-3, 2 runs) led off the game with a single off the third base bag, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Erin Lisko, and scored on the first of Jessie Richardson's (3-for-3, 3 RBI, run) two doubles in the ballgame.
The score would remain tight until the fourth when the Bears would create some breathing room. Richardson led off the inning with a single through the right side before Cherokee Strickland (1-for-3, 2 RBI, run) hit a towering two-run homer over the left field fence to make it 3-0 Bears. A pair each of errors and hits would give Coast Guard a 5-0 lead with runners on first and third for Lisko who singled off the first base bag to chase home another run for a 6-0 Coast Guard edge. Richardson would follow it up with her second double of the day, this one a wicked ground ball that found its way to the right-center field fence, making it 8-0 in favor of Coast Guard.
Sorensen (6-10) went the distance for the Bears, limiting Smith to just four hits on the afternoon to extend her scoreless streak to 13.1 innings, dating back to April 14th. She would allow just one walk and recorded a pair of strikeouts in the ballgame.
Tori Brown (New Market, Md./Linganore) (0-2) took the loss for Smith, yielding eight runs (three earned) on nine hits over four innings.
Joanna Giordano (South Salem, N.Y./John Jay) was 2-for-2 with a double in the game, the lone Pioneer to record multiple hits.
Tori Brown (New Market, Md./Linganore) and
Edie Richardson (Franklin, Mass./Fontbonne Academy) also registered hits for Smith.
Smith hosts Amherst on Monday for a single game starting at 4:30 p.m. Thursday's twinbill at Western New England has been cancelled as the Pioneers will open NEWMAC tournament play on Friday. Coast Guard will wrap up their season on Wednesday, April 23rd when they travel to Willimantic, Conn. to take on the Warriors of Eastern Connecticut in a double-header slated to begin at 5:00 pm.
(Courtesy Coast Guard)
