Clermont, Fla. – March 20, 2014 - The Springfield College softball team split a pair of games on Thursday, beating Bethany, 14-2 before falling to Benedictine, 2-1.

The win over Bethany marked Springfield’s sixth-straight win before suffering its first loss of the season. The Pride is now 6-1 on the year. Springfield’s 6-0 start was its best since the 1996 season.

Springfield 14, Bethany 2:

First-year Nicole Cring (Cooperstown, N.Y.) earned her first collegiate win in the circle for the Pride, giving up just two runs on four hits over four innings.

Springfield went off for nine runs in the seventh inning and tallied 13 hits over the course of the game. Elizabeth Joseph (Stamford, Conn.) knocked in her first homerun of the season and Christina Leader (Yorktown Heights, N.Y.) had an RBI triple to lead the Pride.

Jenna Webb (Harrison, N.Y.) had a double and two RBI’s and Camdyn Morgillo (West Haven, Conn.) knocked in one run. First-year Liz Finelli (North Kingstown, R.I.), who entered the game in the seventh inning, had two RBI’s in her only plate appearance.

Benedictine 2, Springfield 1:

Springfield got another strong performance in the circle from Jennifer Joseph (Stamford, Conn.), but narrowly lost its first game of the season in game two of Thursday’s doubleheader.

Joseph allowed just three hits over the course of the game and struck out five.

Tasha Polana (Orange, Mass.) had two of Springfield’s six hits in the game, going 2-for-3 from the plate. Leader went 1-for-3 with a walk while Johanna Burke (Oxford, Mass.), Caitie Holik (South Windsor, Conn.) and Ally Rivelli (North Kingstown, R.I.) each tallied a hit.

Benedictine went ahead 1-0 in the first inning then took a two-run advantage in the fourth. Springfield got on the board in the bottom of the fourth, but couldn’t tie it up over the last three innings.

Springfield will play again on Friday, taking on Hamilton at 9:00 a.m. and Plymouth State at 1:00 p.m.