Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 CLERMONT, Fla. -- Junior Kylie Fletcher (Dighton, Mass.) rapped out three hits, including a key fifth inning RBI triple, to lead UMass Dartmouth to a 5-4 opening game victory over Gordon on the final day of play at the PFX Spring Games at Legends Way Field. The Corsairs dropped a 5-2 nightcap decision to Dubuque to finish 6-6 on the 12-game trip.
Freshman Jaime Brown (Taunton, Mass.) staked UMass Dartmouth to a 1-0 second inning lead in the lid-lifter with a sacrifice fly, and junior Jill Richards (Kingston, Mass.) extended that margin to 3-0 in the top of the third with a two-run single. Senior Cierra Sheerin (Bridgewater, Mass.) laced an RBI double and scored on Fletcher's three-bagger, and those tallies proved pivotal in the late innings when the Fighting Scots (1-8) got a run back in the fourth and three more in the fifth to close back to within one. Senior Annika Evensen (Lake Forest, Calif.) came in to close the door over the final 2 2/3 innings for UMass Dartmouth, as she fanned three to pick up her second save of the spring. Fletcher and Sheerin combined for five of the Corsairs' eight opening game hits in support of Richards, who struck out five over 4 1/3 frames to earn the triumph inside the circle.
Dubuque (8-4) plated single runs in its first two at-bats before extending that margin to 4-0 with a two-run fourth inning rally, and that score held up until the bottom of the sixth when Brown's RBI single got UMass Dartmouth on the board. The Spartans collected their final tally in the seventh, and Fletcher's run scoring single through the right side brought the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the inning, which Dubuque escaped by inducing a pop-up to end the contest.
Fletcher amassed two more hits to finish with five on the day in the second game setback for the Corsairs, as sophomore Anna Kerwood (Florence, Mass.) went the distance inside the circle for UMass Dartmouth.
