NEW LONDON, Conn. -Â After falling in game one, 9-4, the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth softball team rallied for four runs in the fifth inning to take game two, 7-5, to earn a split at Coast Guard Wednesday afternoon.
5th-year senior
Jill Richards, Senior
Lindsay Chubbuck and sophomore
Hailey Lyons all went deep for the Corsairs (19-7-1), while the Bears (11-7) had a strong pitching performance to take the first game.
GAME ONE
Senior
Kate Condon, junior
Victoria Rossetti, and sophomore
Dyonna Rodas each finished with two hits, while Lyons connected on her second home run of the season in the third inning, but it was Coast Guard coming away with a 9-4 win.
A double and a home run quickly made it a 2-0 advantage for the Bears in the first inning. Coast Guard made it 3-0 in the second on an RBI single.
UMass Dartmouth tied the game at three in the third. After leading off with a base hit, Rodas eventually scored on an error that allowed freshman
Ella Beaulieu to reach base. Lyons then stepped up to the plate and knotted the score with one swing as she sent the ball over the right-field fence.
Coast Guard answered with a four-run fourth. The runs scored on a pair of singles, a sacrifice fly, and an error, to make it a 9-3 lead for the home team.
5th-year senior
Leah Major drove home freshman
Sadie Keefe in the sixth, but that was as close as the Corsairs would cut it.
GAME TWO
Trailing 5-3 after the fourth inning, UMass Dartmouth went for back-to-back doubles followed by a single to win game two, 7-5.
Richards came in to pitch in the third and went 3.1 innings of shutout ball with three strikeouts to pick up her 10th win of the season.
The Corsairs combined for 13 hits. Richards had the best day at the plate, she went 2-for-4 with a home run, three RBI, and two runs scored. Chubbuck hit a home run as well as she and Richards lead the team with four dingers each.
With two gone in the first, Chubbuck got it started with her long ball to give the Corsairs a 1-0 advantage.Coast Guard evened the score in the third on an RBI double.
Richards put UMass Dartmouth back on top in the fourth with a two-run shot to left, but the Bears went back up, 5-3, after a four-run home half of the inning.
In need of a comeback, the Corsairs scored four runs in the fifth to put it away. Rodas and Major each singled, then Richards and Lyons both doubled to give UMass Dartmouth a 6-5 lead. Freshman
Larissa Piessens added an insurance run with a base knock to make it 7-5.
Richards worked her way out of a jam in the sixth and had a 1-2-3 seventh to shut the door on Coast Guard.
UP NEXT
UMass Dartmouth hosts Southern Maine on Saturday at 1 and 3 p.m. The team will celebrate its six seniors:
Lindsay Chubbuck,
Kate Condon,
Anna Kerwood,
Marisa Minore,
Lynsie Miracle, and
Averi Soares. 5th-year seniors
Leah Major and
Jill Richards will also be honored.
