Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 NEW PALTZ, N.Y. – The State University of New York at New Paltz softball team bounced back with a 5-0 win in the back end of a non-conference twinbill against The Sage Colleges on Wednesday afternoon at Mary Gray Deane Field after dropping the first game of the doubleheader, 5-3. The second game was called after the top of the sixth inning due to darkness.
New Paltz moves to 7-7 overall with the results and next hosts Union (N.Y.) College in a non-conference doubleheader on Friday, April 1, at 3 p.m. Sage moves to 9-9 with the results and next hosts Farmingdale State College in its home-opening doubleheader on Saturday, April 2, at 1 p.m.
Game 1: Sage 5, New Paltz 3 Sage received numerous offensive contributions in game one, as the Gators scattered 14 hits in the victory.
Freshman first baseman Kiersten Duncan put the Gators on the board first in the top of the second with an RBI single to right field, and following back-to-back singles by junior pitcher Lindsay Brace and freshman right fielder Aanisah Taylor, junior left fielder Allison Ford drove in Duncan to make it a 2-0 game. New Paltz countered in the home half of the inning, as sophomore first baseman
Lauren Cappello (New City, N.Y./Albertus Magnus) singled to right field and later came home on an RBI single to right center by junior third baseman
Nicole DeCosta (Stormville, N.Y./John Jay-East Fishkill) to cut the deficit in half.
Duncan pushed across two runs with a double down the right-field line in the third to push the Sage edge to 4-1, but sophomore left fielder
Julia Perhacs (Robbinsville, N.J./Robbinsville) cut the Hawks' deficit to two runs in the fifth following an RBI single to left center. Ford registered her second RBI of the game in the top of the sixth to put Sage on top, 5-2, before DeCosta drove in her second run of the contest in the home half of the frame to spell what eventually would become the final score.
DeCosta led the Hawk bats by going 2-for-3 with two RBI, while five Gators registered multiple hits, including a 3-for-4 performance from Duncan.
Senior pitcher
Katie Rutcofsky (Plainview, N.Y./Plainview-Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy) shouldered the game-one loss for New Paltz, yielding four runs off nine hits while striking out one in three innings of work, while Brace earned the win in the circle for Sage, yielding three runs off five hits and six walks while striking out nine.
Game 2: New Paltz 5, Sage 0 (6 inn.) With darkness looming, New Paltz worked quickly, scoring twice in the first inning and three times in the third to provide the requisite cushion needed before the game was called in the middle of the sixth inning.
Junior center fielder
Fallon Spriggs (Kingston, N.Y./Kingston) authored the Hawks' first run of the game, touching home on a double steal. Perhacs, who reached second on the double steal, scored on an error during the next at-bat to give New Paltz a 2-0 advantage. The Hawks capitalized on a four-error third inning by Sage, as freshman shortstop
Taylor LaFrance (New Windsor, N.Y./Newburgh Free Academy), Perhacs and Rutcofsky all scored to swell the New Paltz lead to 5-0. Sage was unable to advance any runners past second base from that point forward, as the Hawks salvaged the split.
Six different Hawks recorded a hit in game two, while Ford and senior third baseman Morgan Dunn each went 2-for-3 to lead the Gators.
Rutcofsky was the pitcher of record in game two as well, albeit with a much different result than game one. She tossed a complete-game shutout, scattering five hits while striking out a career-high-tying 10 batters. Ford suffered the loss for Sage, giving up five runs (one earned) off six hits and two walks while striking out one.
