Softball Picks Up First Win Against Saint Joseph
ORLANDO – The Mitchell College softball team earned its first
victory of the 2010 season on Saturday afternoon, bouncing back
from a 16-10 loss in the first game of a doubleheader with Saint
Joseph College (Conn.) to rally for a 3-2 win in the nightcap.
With the second game tied at 2-2, Mitchell (1-3 overall) scratched
across the go-ahead run in its half of the seventh inning and then
held off a late charge from the Blue Jays (1-1 overall).
Junior Jen Bordonaro crossed the plate with the winning run
for the Mariners on a Saint Joseph fielding error.
While the day’s first game was highlighted by offense, the
second game featured a pitcher’s duel between sophomore Marissa Thomas and Saint Joseph’s Kristin
Parente. Neither allowed an earned run in seven innings of work.
Thomas allowed two runs on five hits while striking out three and
walking none to earn her first win of the season. Parente gave up
three runs on only three hits and struck out four while walking
two.
The Blue Jays broke a scoreless tie with two runs in the fourth,
but the Mariners scored twice in the fifth as a result of a
throwing error with two outs in the frame. The story repeated
itself in the seventh, when Bordonaro kept Mitchell’s hopes
alive with a two-out bunt single to get on base. She followed by
stealing second and advancing to third on a passed ball, and
eventually came around to score on Saint Joseph’s third error
of the game.
A two-out double by the Blue Jays in the bottom of the seventh put
the tying run in scoring position, but Thomas got the next batter
to fly out to center to end the game. The win was also the first
for head coach Bernadette Macca, who is in her first season with
the Mariners.
In the day’s first game, Saint Joseph pounded out 15 hits and
benefitted from six Mitchell errors to take the win. Eight players
finished with a hit, run scored and RBI for the Blue Jays, who were
playing their first game of the season.
Three errors helped Saint Joseph out to a 4-0 lead in the first
inning, but the Blue Jays let the Mariners right back in the game
in the bottom of the frame. Starting pitcher Sara Dudley had
trouble finding the plate and issued six walks and a hit before
being pulled from the game. Mitchell scored seven runs but promptly
gave up the lead in the second, allowing five runs on four hits and
an error.
Saint Joseph never trailed again, extending the lead to 14-8 with
two runs in the third and three more in the fourth. The Mariners
got two runs back in the sixth on a double by senior Sara
Krolikowski, but the Blue Jays shut down the rally and added
two runs in the seventh to seal the victory.
Sophomores Stacey Suplicki and Nikki
Hoxie each had solid games. Suplicki went 3-for-4 with three
runs scored while Hoxie was 2-for-4 and scored twice. Krolikowski
finished with three RBI in the game.
Mitchell wraps up its spring trip with a doubleheader against the
University of New England on Sunday, March 14 at 9 a.m.
