CLERMONT, Fla. -Â The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth softball team split with the College of Saint Benedict and Husson on the final day of its Florida trip to come away with an 8-1 record to begin the season. The Corsairs dropped their first game of the year to the Bennies, who improve to 8-1, and took down the Eagles, who are now 5-5 on the campaign.
VS. COLLEGE OF SAINT BENEDICT
Errors cost UMass Dartmouth in a 3-1 setback to the College of Saint Benedict. None of the Bennies runs were earned as 5th-year senior
Jill Richards did all she could in the circle, going all seven innings with seven K's with six hits allowed and one walk.
UMass Dartmouth could only muster up four hits. 5th-year senior
Leah Major drove in the only run for the Corsairs and it was junior
Victoria Rossetti who came around to score.
The Bennies took a 1-0 lead in the second inning. After a two-out double, an error allowed the runner to cross the plate. UMass Dartmouth evened the score at one in the third. Rossetti hit a base knock to center and freshman
Kinu Takasugi sacrifice bunted her to third. Major then doubled to right field to make it a 1-1 game.
Richards rolled through the next two innings, but the winning runs were plated in the fifth. With a runner on second, a base hit and and a pair of Corsair errors allowed two runs to score and bring the score to its final.
VS. HUSSON
Sophomore
Kaitlyn Shirshac kept her great start in the circle going. She threw a complete game and allowed just one earned run on three hits with three strikeouts to lead the Corsairs to a 5-1 victory over Husson.
Richards finished 2-for-3 with a two-run home run and three runs scored, Major went 3-for-4, sophomore
Dyonna Rodas hit a two-RBI double and senior
Averi Soares picked up two hits and scored. Freshman
Larissa Piessens tallied an RBI single, while senior
Lindsay Chubbuck had a hit and a run.
It took until the fourth to break the stalemate. Richards was hit by a pitch and Soares singled, both runners advanced into scoring position to set up Rodas, who belted a double to left field to bring them both home.
Richards and Soares started the sixth with back-to-back singles. Piessens kept it rolling with a base hit up the middle to extend the lead to to 3-0. The only run of the game for Husson came in the bottom of the sixth, but Shirshac worked her way out of the inning.
UMass Dartmouth scored two more insurance runs in the seventh. Richards smashed the teams first home run of the year to score Chubbuck and herself to finish off the successful business trip in the Sunshine State.
UP NEXT
The Corsairs head back north and will play a double header at Coast Guard on Thursday beginning at 3 p.m.
