While the rest of campus was able to go home and relax for a much-needed week off from classes, the College’s softball team continued playing. There was no rest for the weary as the team played a total of 12 games in the course of one week. Coming out of this long week, the Lions have a mighty record of 9-3, as they dominated the competition over break. This included a no-hitter for freshman pitcher Ashtin Helmer, an amazing achievement.
The Lions traveled down to Florida over spring break to take on a variety of schools to start their season. Originally, their opener had been scheduled for the previous week against Messiah College, but it was rescheduled due to poor weather.
In their first day of the season, the Lions were victorious against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of Rochester, posting scores of 12-4 and 5-4, respectively. Junior pitcher Alex Carisone began the season for the Lions with a strong outing, letting up only four runs, while the College’s offense did the rest of the work.
In the second game that day, freshman pitcher Ashtin Helmer gave another strong outing, holding her own, as the College scored less runs than in the first game, but still came out on top. Helmer allowed only two earned runs and had a mighty 10 strikeouts.
The next day, the Lions collected their first loss against Denison University 2-0, but bounced right back in their game against Keene State College with a huge 15-2 win. With two six-run innings, the Lions were right back to normal. Junior infielder Lindsey Williams, freshman catcher Brianna Cetrulo and freshman outfielder Christine Desiderio had three hits apiece, pushing the Lions’ score to the max.
In their game against Rhode Island College, the Lions showed what they were really made of, in the form of Helmer’s no-hitter in only her second collegiate start. She allowed only three base-runners throughout the entire game and won 10-0.
“It was extremely exciting,” Helmer said. “Florida has been an amazing experience for all of us. We have been working so hard all year for this, and it is great to see it all pay off. We came out strong from our first game to our last and I think when you look at the scores of our games, it really shows.”
And the Lions just kept steam-rolling the competition.
The Lions then went on to win another three in a row: 11-2 against Manhattanville College, 12-7 against Wesleyan University and 14-2 against Farmingdale State University. Freshman pitcher Nicole Hroncich picked up her second win of the season against Farmingdale.
Toward the end of the week, the Lions dropped two games to Bethel University and Haverford College, but did not have long to dwell on the losses.
The Lions bounced back again in their last two games of the week, beating Plymouth State University and Trinity College 12-3 and 8-1, respectively. If the rest of the season is anything like this past week in Florida, the College has something to be proud of. The Lions are ready to start their games back in the northeast and they promise to be just as exciting and rewarding.
The Lions will take on Ursinus College on Wednesday, March 20 at 3 and 5 p.m. and will have their first home games against Muhlenberg College on Thursday, March 21 at 3 and 5 p.m.
