Softball Drops Two Heartbreakers to Marist

Game One Box Score
Game Two Box Score

POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. – The University of Hartford softball team battled hard, but suffered a pair of losses to the Marist Red Foxes at Gartland Park on Thursday afternoon. The Hawks managed to carry ties into the bottom of the seventh frame in each outing however Marist escaped with walk-off victories in both games by final scores of 6-5 and 3-2.

Hartford drops to 3-25 on the season while Marist improves to 23-14 with the win. Sophomore Melani Maxwell combined for four RBIs on the afternoon including a game-tying, two run homer in the nightcap.

Marist jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first inning of Game Two. After exchanging zeroes for the next five frames, first baseman Chelsey Mooney led off Hartford's final at-bats with a walk, setting the scene for Maxwell's two-run bomb over the left field wall to keep the Hawks in the contest at 2-2.

Marist pitcher Emily Osterhaus got out of inning without anymore dents in the scoreboard as she retired the bottom half of the Hawks' line-up in order. In their final at-bats, Caitlin Schell fired an extra-base hit to center field to score Danielle Koltz, who previously reached on a fielder's choice and advanced 60-feet on a single by Sarah Carmody, to earn the win in walk-off fashion.

The Hawks also suffered a heartbreaker in Game One as Marist third baseman Koltz disrupted a 5-5 tie and led off the bottom of the seventh with a walk-off home run to propel the Red Foxes to the 6-5 win.

Maxwell finished with two RBIs while sophomore Kate Wacyk went 2-for-4 and scored one run. Junior Siera Sheehan struck out five inside of the circle in the loss, allowing six earned runs on 10 hits.

Hartford drew blood first in the contest as freshman Amber Andrews' RBI double to left center plated classmate and pinch-runner Kimberly Eisen from third base in the top of the second. Marist responded and got its attack going as Koltz knotted the score at 1-1 with her first of two homers and first baseman Nicole DiVirgilio scratched two more runs across the scoreboard on an infield single with the bases juiced.

The Hawks managed to get two of the runs back in the top of the third to even the score at 3-3, doing all of the scoring with two outs in the frame. Red Foxes hurler Osterhaus pitched herself into a jam, first hitting sophomore Nicole Springer by a pitch before issuing walks to Maxwell and Chelsey Mooney to load up the bases. Another walk, Osterhaus' third-straight, by Sheehan walked-in Springer before a pitching change took place. Inheriting three base runners, Genevieve Morneau-Vaillancourt earned a walk off of Paige Lewis to score the Hawks second run of the inning and third of the contest.

The Red Foxes regained a one-run edge in the bottom of the third however the advantage was short-lived. The Hawks used four-straight singles to plate a pair of runs and take their first lead of the game at 5-4. Hartford again did all of its damage with two down in the stanza as Wacyk, the catcher, ignited the rally with her single up the middle of the infield. Classmate Springer followed by pulling a single down the left field line before rookie Mooney kept the bats going and loaded up the bases with a screamer through the left side. Wacyk and Springer then moved home when classmate Maxwell laced a hard-hit single to right.

Marist added the equalizer to the scoreboard in the bottom of the fifth as Carmody's double to left center scored Lindsay Durant who reached on an infield single.

The Hawks return home for the weekend to host the Stony Brook Seawolves for an America East Conference series. Hartford and Stony Brook are scheduled to play a doubleheader on Saturday (1:00 p.m.) followed by a single game on Sunday (12 noon).

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