Box Score TROY, N.Y. – The State University of New York at New Paltz softball team crawled out of a 6-1 hole against The Sage Colleges in a non-conference doubleheader on Wednesday at Robison Field, but the host Gators came back, forced extra innings and hit a walk-off grand slam in the eighth inning to come away with a 15-12 victory over the visiting Hawks.
The second game ended in the third inning due to darkness, with New Paltz up, 3-1. Due to the contest not meeting the minimum threshold for innings played, the game does not count.
In a battle that lasted a shade under three hours, the two teams combined for 28 hits and 17 runs. Sage hopped out to a 5-0 lead in the first and a 6-1 advantage in the third before New Paltz's six-run fourth staked the Hawks to a 7-6 edge. New Paltz added to that with three runs in the fifth, but Sage scored one run in the fifth, two runs in the sixth and one run in the seventh to tie the score at 10-all and force extra innings.
New Paltz took advantage of the international tiebreaker rule in the top of the eighth, with junior second baseman
Jordan Fiore (Mount Sinai, N.Y./Mount Sinai) moving senior third baseman
Meg Brewer (Bayport, N.Y./Bayport-Blue Point) over to third on a sacrifice bunt before coming home on an RBI single by senior catcher
Shayna Burgess (Smithtown, N.Y./Commack). Burgess wound up scoring on a passed ball to give the Hawks a 12-10 lead.
Sage countered quickly, driving in the placed runner on second with an RBI base knock. After a walk and a bunt single to load the bases, freshman left fielder Alana Vandenburg blasted a grand slam to end the game.
New Paltz falls to 7-6 overall with the loss and is scheduled to take on SUNY Oneonta in its first State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) doubleheader of the season on Friday, April 3, at 3 p.m. at Oneonta. Sage rises to 5-8 overall with the win and hosts Skidmore College in a doubleheader tomorrow at 3:30 p.m.
Burgess led the Hawk attack, going 3-for-5 with three runs scored, three RBI, a double and a stolen base. Senior pitcher
Erika Traina (Bay Shore, N.Y./Bay Shore) batted 2-for-4 with four RBI, two runs scored and a home run. For Sage, junior first baseman Courtney Laughlin (3-for-5, five RBI, two runs scored, one double) and Vandenburg (2-for-5, five RBI, two runs scored, one home run) did the bulk of the damage offensively.
Junior pitcher
Katie Rutcofsky (Plainview, N.Y./Plainview-Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy) was saddled with the loss in one inning of work, as she started and finished the game. Traina pitched well in six innings of relief, yielding five runs (three earned) off eight hits and three walks while striking out one. Sage used three different pitchers, with sophomore Lindsay Brace earning the win in the circle in two frames of relief work.
