Springfield, Mass. – April 10, 2010 – Stef Grande powered the Springfield College softball team past conference-rival Wellesley College, 3-2, in the opening game of a New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) doubleheader on Saturday afternoon. But Wellesley pulled off a great comeback in game #2 to defeat the Pride, 8-6, in eight innings.
With the split, SC is now 12-13 overall, and 7-3 in the NEWMAC. Wellesley becomes 19-5 overall, 9-3 in league play.
In game #1, Springfield took advantage of two walks and three Wellesley errors in the very first inniing to take a 2-0 lead. The first run scored on an error, while the second scored on a wild pitch. Wellesley then scored an unearned run in the top of the second to cut the lead in half.
In the bottom of the fourth, SC produced yet another unearned run when Mackenzie O’Dea singled with two outs. She then came around on a passed ball, a wild pitch, and an error on the shortstop. That made it, 3-1, Springfield.
In the top of the sixth, the Blue’s Megan Wood smashed a long home run to left field to cut the margin to 3-2. A dropped pop-up on a foul ball allowed Wood second life, and she drilled the home run on the very next pitch. But that proved to be all the scoring in game #1. Wellesley went 1-2-3 in the top of the seventh.
Springfield managed only three hits in that first game, as Lauren Goldfarb pitched well for Wellesley in going the distance. But the Blue committed four errors, which greatly contributed to their demise.
Meanwhile, Grande allowed only five hits and two unearned runs in going the distance for SC. The win upped her record to 5-8 on the season.
In game #2, Springfield was in control most of the way, posting leads of 3-0 after two inniings, and 6-3 after six innings. But the Blue came back with three in the top of the seventh to tie matters at 6-all. That included two solo home runs, one by Wood to lead off the inning, and the other a dramatic two-out, two-strike shot to straightaway center by Sam Spiga.
Wellesley got out of a runners on a second and third with no one out jam in the bottom of the seventh, allowing the game to move to the eighth.
In that inning, with the international format in place which had a runner on second with no one out, Wellesley scored immediately when Jessie Haladyna tripled home a run. Then with two outs, she scored an important insurance run on a wild pitch, making it 8-6. SC had the tying runs on first and third with two outs in the bottom of the eighth, but could not take advantage.
For Wellesley, Sarah Schwartzmeyer turned out to be the winning pitcher. For SC, Megan Fitzgerald turned out to be the tough-luck loser, one strike away from victory as she was, and is now 5-3.
For SC, Amanda Novak smashed a long two-run home run in the bottom of the fourth, just after Wellesley had tied it with three in the top of the fourth.
The Pride will next play tomorrow (Sunday) in a make-up doubleheader at Babson at 12 noon. The SC at Babson doubleheader had been scheduled yesterday, but was rained out.
