The College’s softball team continued its 2011 season by playing two doubleheaders this past week.
The first doubleheader was played on Wednesday, March 16, against Moravian College, in which the team lost the first and won the second.
The second doubleheader was played against Susquehanna University, where the Lions also dropped the first game and won the second.
“I think we had a little bit of trouble hitting both Moravian and Susquehanna’s pitchers in the first games,” sophomore infielder Kelly Hommen said. “We made a number of adjustments at the plate and that was definitely evident in the way we hit in the second game.”
In the first game against Moravian, the College was held scoreless losing by a score of 3-0. The game was scoreless until the Greyhounds struck in the fifth inning with a double, which brought in a run. That run was the first that junior Lauren Fitzsimmons allowed the entire year, snapping her scoreless streak at 35.2 innings. The Greyhounds tacked on two more runs, while no-hitting the Lions in the process.
The second game proved to be a much different story, as the Lions were victorious, winning by a score of 6-0. Freshman Alex Carisone pitched seven shutout innings to collect her third victory of the season. The Lions broke out of their slump early with four runs in the first two innings. The Lions never looked back from there, scoring another two runs in the fourth inning, to defeat the Greyhounds 6-0.
In the first game against Susquehanna, the Crusaders jumped out to an early lead by scoring four runs in the top of the first inning. A pair of home runs in the fifth inning put the game out of reach, as the lead stretched to 9-0. Sophomore Ashley Sogluzzio had the lone hit in the game.
The Lions redeemed themselves in the second game of the doubleheader by winning 7-1. The sleeping bats in the first game were no more, as the Lions claimed an early 1-0 lead in the third inning. The Lions batted in two more runs in the fourth inning with junior Crystal Lee and sophomore Liz Huttner, each knocking in a run. The Crusaders were never able to overcome the deficit, enabling freshman Kelly Hardman to pick up her second win of the season.
“I think with all sports you need to have a short memory, forget about your mistakes, but you also need to learn from them,” Hommen said. “There were a lot of things that we took from the first game and used them for the second game. That’s what’s great about playing the same team twice; you learn a lot about their strengths and weaknesses, and you can use that for the second game.”
