ALBANY, NY ? The University of Hartford softball team split a doubleheader on Saturday afternoon at the University at Albany, winning the first game 6-3 before falling 8-0 in the nightcap.
In the first game, the Hawks (17-18 overall, 7-5 America East) scored three runs in the top of the seventh to pull out to a 6-2 lead. After hitting the first Albany batter in the bottom of the frame, freshman Brittney Stratton settled down and closed out her 10th win of the season. The win also tied her for the most by a freshman in the school's Division I history.
Hartford jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second inning on a two-run homer by freshman Olivia Piacentini, the first of her collegiate career. The Great Danes, however, answered with a pair of runs in the bottom of the frame to tie it up at 2-2.
The Hawks went ahead in the fifth after senior Kristie Rochette led off the inning with a walk, moved to third on an error and scored on a wild pitch. Hartford's three runs in the seventh came on an RBI single by freshman Rachel Clonick and a two-run double by classmate Amanda Dilworth.
Stratton only ran into trouble in the second when she allowed three walks and a pair of hits. Otherwise, the rookie right-hander kept the Great Danes unbalanced, yielding only four hits over seven innings while striking out two.
Hartford's bats went cold in the second game as Albany starter Casey Halloran threw a five-inning no-hitter. Hartford freshman Gina Massaro started the game strong and didn't allow a run until the fourth. The Great Danes, however, struck for seven runs in the fourth and added another in the fifth for the eight-run mercy rule.
Massaro, who gave up eight runs on eight hits in five innings, didn't get much help from her defense in the fourth. The Hawks committed a pair of errors in the frame, both of which should have gotten Massaro out of the inning before she gave up a grand slam that turned a three-run deficit into seven.
Hartford and Albany will play the final game of the weekend series on Sunday, April 22 at 12 p.m.
