Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 New Paltz, NY – The State University of New York at New Paltz softball team collected two more wins Wednesday battling through the vicious winds down at Mary Gray Deanne Field to earn a sweep over visiting Mount Saint Mary College, winning 5-1 in both games of its double-header.

"Getting a mid-week sweep, obviously it does nothing for conference play so they're not as important, but it definitely builds our confidence going into conference play this week," said Hawks junior catcher Michaela Damore. "And you know, had we lost these two or even lost one of these, kind of breaks your confidence down a little bit, but once we get this sweep we're definitely feeling ourselves. We're proud of ourselves and it's just solidifies that we are just doing things that we need to do in order to win games. We do need to pick it up a little bit for this weekend, but I have full confidence that we're going to." 
SUNY New Paltz (13-5 overall) trailed in both games against the Knights (5-10), but answered back early in both outings. In the first contest of the day, Celia Santini got the rally started in the top of the fourth, as she beat out a throw to first to earn a leadoff single. Caroline Alicandri pinch ran for Santini and advanced to second after a fielder's choice by Katie Quagliana. Mount Saint Mary attempted to get the force out at second on the play, but Alicandri was hit on the throw, reaching safely at second with Quagliana landing at first.

Trudden stepped up to bat and garnered a walk to load the bases for Nikki Bowen, who came into the batter's box to pinch hit for Katie Conrad. Bowen got the job done, hitting a hard chopper back to the pitcher resulting in a two RBI single.

The Hawks added on in the bottom of the fifth inning. Ashley Puig was hit in the elbow to earn a free base with Shannon Fee following with a perfectly laid sacrifice bunt to move her over to second in the following at-bat. After Alicandri worked the count and earned a walk, she and Puig were moved over by a groundout from Meagan Blair. With two-outs, Quagliana, who got the nod in the circle, helped her own cause by ripping a hard shot up the middle. With the winds playing a factor, the Knights center fielder misplayed the ball and Quagliana stretched the play to a two RBI triple, scoring Alicandri and Puig to push SUNY New Paltz's lead, 5-1.

Quagliana faced eight more batters in the game before closing out her eighth victory of the year after throwing her seventh complete game. She gave up just five hits three walks and no earned runs in the outing, while striking out three.

"Moving forward I've been telling the girls, teams are going to score runs and that's OK," said SUNY New Paltz coach Krysti Maronski. "If it's early we can't get down. We have a lot of game left, a lot of innings left to put up runs and they just kept going at it and that is what we need to do."
An RBI triple gave the Knights an early 1-0 lead to start the top of the first in the second game of the double-header. However, Emily Fox limited the damage from there, as she stranded a runner at third after forcing a pop out and a ground out to end the inning.

It didn't take long for the Hawks to answer. Ashley Puig started the offense after ripping a one-out double over the left fielder's head. Fee earned a walk in the following at-bat and Santini flew out advancing Fee and Puig over, setting the table for Meagan Blair. The sophomore out of Highland Mills, NY, as she has been doing the last few games, came up with a clutch two-out hit, ripping the ball to left center for a bases clearing two RBI double.

"Meg, she is just a gamer," Maronski said. "She's out there having fun. She'll get dirty. She'll do what needs to be done to get the job done for her team and I think at the plate she's hitting good pitches and she's being aggressive, which the rest of us need to start doing, but you know, she's not allowing too many strikes to go by. She is taking hacks at it."

Blair came through with another highlight play in the third, this time on the defensive end on a tough grounder she fielded from her knees to get the force out at second to end the inning. Although the Hawks didn't build off the momentum of the defensive effort in the bottom of the inning, they tacked on more in the fourth and blew the game open.

Bowen led off with a double and with Katie Conrad in to pinch run, she was quickly brought home in the next at bat after a hard hit ball to the right field fence by Kelsey Trudden extended SUNY New Paltz's lead to two. The score quickly bumped to 5-1 Hawks, as Michaela Damore stepped in and belted a two-run home run over the left field fence to give her team a healthy four-run cushion. "Off the bat I didn't think it was going to go out. I thought it was just going to go pretty far. Like, 'Oh yeah, that's a pretty good hit,' and the second it went over the fence I was really excited," Damore said. "It was probably one of the best feelings ever, especially knowing you are producing for your team. You got up there you did your job. It is definitely the best feeling ever."

Mount Saint Mary threatened in the top of the fifth after leading off with a walk. After earning the next out and allowing a single to right, Fox regrouped to register back-to-back outs on a force out at third and a swinging strikeout to strand two runs and keep the Hawks advantage at four.

An error and a single to short allowed the Knights a chance to tighten the gap in the top of the seventh with one out, but Fox made sure to close the door on the win. Morgan O'Neill batted into a 5-4-3 double play for the Knights ending the game and solidifying SUNY New Paltz's fourth-straight win.  

Fox went the full seven innings, letting up six hits four walks and one strikeout on the day. Both Fox and Quagliana did a good job of limiting the damage with runners on, combining to strand 17 runners on base through the two games.

"Today was a tough day with all the wind. It is definitely difficult to pitch in that type of weather, but they were pushing through and I think they did a good job with runners on," Maronski said. "I think they could have dominated a little bit more, but that's something that we have to work on and we'll continue to work on moving forward. But overall, they did a good job and we got what we needed out of them.

Puig finished 2-for-6 at the plate with two runs in the double-header, while Bowen finished 2-for-3 with two RBI's. Blair went 2-for-5 on the day with two RBI's, while Quagliana batted in the first game and went 1-for-3 with two runs and two RBI's.

Next up for the Hawks is a crucial conference road series against Oswego State Saturday and SUNY Cortland Sunday. Both games are double-headers, slated for a noon start. To stay up to date with everything #NPHawks including photos, video, recaps and highlights, be sure to follow @nphawks on Twitter and @newpaltzhawks on Facebook and Instagram.