Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 CLERMONT, Fla. – Behind 25 hits, including six off the bat of first-year Emma Kraus (Wakefield, Mass./Wakefield), the Smith Pioneers earned their first two victories of the 2016 season with a sweep of Lasell and Fitchburg State.  

Tori Brown (New Market, Md./Linganore) roped a two-out double down the left-field line in the 4^th inning against Lasell for her 100^th career hit, part of a six-run inning in which the Pioneers turned a 2-1 deficit into a five-run advantage.  Brown is the 16^th Pioneer to reach the century mark for her career.  Smith closed Sunday's play with a 7-1 victory in the nightcap.

Game 1:
Lasell jumped on the scoreboard in their season-opener in the top of the first with three consecutive one-out hits.  After a leadoff walk and popup, Emily DeAngelis singled to left and Laura Macleod doubled hard down the left-field line.  Erin Larghi dropped a single behind the second-base bag to drive home DeAngelis and put the Lasers ahead 2-0.

Smith struck in the bottom of the second to cut the deficit in half.  Rowan Turner (Prairie Village, Kan./Shawnee Mission East) led off the inning with a hard shot up the middle and was sent to third on a one-out double by Lydia DeAngelo (Portsmouth, R.I./Moses Brown School).  Kraus lofted her first hit of the day, a single into right field, to score Turner. 

In the circle, Natalie Burchat (Shrewsbury, Mass./Shrewsbury) (1-1) found her rhythm and retired 10 Lasell hitters in a row, striking out the side in the second.  The Pioneers gained their first lead of the day in the fourth inning following a leadoff single by Brittney Blokker (Seattle, Wash./Ballard) into the shortstop hole.  After an error and walk loaded the bases, Kraus squared up an Eileen Bergin offering and blasted a liner over the head of the Lasell right-fielder, clearing the bases with a triple.  Caroline Kushner (Cheshire, Conn./Cheshire) followed with a single to right for her second RBI in as many games to give the Pioneers a 5-2 lead.

Smith was not done in the fourth inning as with two outs and Kushner still on second, Allison Snyder (Succasunna, N.J./Roxbury) stepped to the plate 0-2 on the day despite a sensational 11-pitch at-bat in the first and a hard line-out in the third.  Snyder won the third battle with Bergin, doubling up the alley in right-center, scoring Kushner and bringing up Brown, who delivered her milestone liner which plated Snyder and put the Pioneers ahead 7-2.

Lasell pulled a run back in the top of the fifth with a pair of doubles to lead off the inning, but Smith closed out the opener with five runs in their own half of the inning.  Turner set the table with a lead-off double and scored on a one-out single to center by DeAngelo.  Kraus continued her torrid start with an RBI double to left before Kushner reached on a fielding error.  One out later, Snyder stepped to the plate again and delivered the final blow, a three-run mammoth shot over the fence in left-center to end the opener 12-3.

Game 2:
The Smith bats picked up where they left off in Game 1 as the Pioneers scored the first three runs of Game 2 against Fitchburg State.  After a scoreless first, Smith lit the scoreboard in the top of the second with a pair of singles.  Blokker opened the inning with a single through the circle and after advancing to second on a wild pitch, was sent home by Kraus, who picked up her sixth RBI of the day by flipping a single into right.

Smith added two more runs to extend their lead in the third with just one hit, a lead-off single by Kushner that Fitchburg shortstop Marissa Gemma could only knock down behind the second-base bag.  Two errors, a wild pitch, and a balk later, Kushner and Snyder had crossed the plate and the Pioneers led 3-0.

The three-run cushion would be more than enough for Turner (1-1), who dominated in the circle.  Gemma led off the bottom of the first with a single for the Falcons, but Turner held Fitchburg without another hit until the bottom of the fourth, when the Falcons put two in scoring position with just one out.  The Smith sophomore worked out of trouble, inducing a pop-up to Kushner at short and striking out Brianna Uga swinging.

After Fitchburg plated a run in the bottom of the fifth, Smith immediately answered with a four-run sixth.  Turner again started the inning with a single, pulling a groundball between third and short, and Kraus placed a perfect bunt to the left of the rubber to put runners on first and second.  DeAngelo doubled home Turner, and Kraus scored on a Burchat sacrifice fly before a pair of Falcon errors brought home the final two runs of the ballgame as the Pioneers pulled ahead 7-1.

Smith continues play at The Spring Games in Clermont at 1PM against Frostburg State on Monday before taking on Becker at 3PM.