GAME ONE BOX SCORE
GAME TWO BOX SCORE
ORONO, Maine - Jordan Haines went 4-for-4, driving in three runs as the Hartford softball team came back from deficits of three and two runs to earn an 8-6 victory in the second game of a doubleheader at Maine on Saturday afternoon. Haines had three singles and a double as the Hawks came back from 4-1 and 6-4 holes to get the victory. That earned the Hawks a split in the doubleheader after they fell 6-5 in the first game.
Siera Sheehan earned the victory for Hartford (9-34, 3-14), as Ashley Kelley took the loss for Maine (18-27, 7-9). In the first game, Beth Spoehr was the winning pitcher as Kelley earned a save and Kaitlyn Meade took the loss.
In both games, Hartford grabbed an early lead, only to see the Black Bears go on top in the bottom of the first inning. Hartford scored twice in the top of the first of Game One, with Nicole Springer's double to deep center field plating both Lauren Kamena and Haines.
Maine would respond with three runs in the first and three more in the second. The top of the order did all the damage for the Black Bears, as the first three hitters scored two runs each. Leadoff hitter Jennifer Eberhardt slammed a home run with two outs and no one on in the second, followed two batters later by a two-run shot from Terren Hall. Hall had also picked up two RBIs in the first inning with a single.
Meade settled down from there, allowing just two hits the rest of the game. The Hawks got back on the board with a run in the third inning, as Shannon Simpkins singled and scored on Kamena's sacrifice fly. Then in the sixth, Hartford made it a one-run ballgame when Springer singled and Kate Wacyk roped a double to left field. Melani Maxwell plated both runners with a hard single to the right side of the infield, prompting a pitching change that brought Kelley in to relieve Spoehr.
Kelley got the next two outs to end the Hartford threat, but then loaded the bases with a fielder's choice and two walks in the seventh. However, she got Wacyk to strike out, preserving the one-run victory for the Black Bears.
Amber Andrews got the scoring started for Hartford in Game Two, singling and coming around to score on a throwing error on Kamena's infield single. Maine would score four times in the bottom of the first, though, as Sheehan walked three of the first four hitters she faced before Hilary Kane doubled home two runs and Brynne Davis singled home two more.
The Hawks would tie the score in the second inning. Maxwell led off with a walk, moving to second on a single off the bat of Chelsey Mooney. After Genevieve Morneau-Vaillancourt moved up both runners with a sacrifice bunt, Simpkins plated Maxwell with an RBI single to left. Andrews was then hit by a pitch to load the bases, and Kamena's second sacrifice fly of the day brought Mooney home. Haines then hit her second single in as many at bats, this one a shot to left-center which scored Simpkins.
Maine took the lead back at 6-4 in the fourth when Eberhardt poked her second home run of the day, a two-run shot. In the top of the fifth, Hartford cut the lead in half when Kamena singled and scored on Haines' RBI double to deep left field.
Down just one run, the Hawks put the first two runners on in the sixth as Mooney and Morneau-Vaillancourt singled. After a Simpkins sacrifice bunt, Andrews lofted a fly ball to right field that Lindsey Jenkins misplayed, allowing Andrews to reach safely and both runners to come around to score. Both runs were unearned, as was Andrews' when Haines singled her home from second base two batters later.
Sheehan worked out of a second-and-third jam in the bottom of the sixth by getting a comebacker to end the inning. She then closed the door in the seventh as the Hawks took the 8-6 victory.
Hartford will conclude its season on Sunday afternoon as the Hawks and Black Bears meet for one final game in Orono. First pitch is scheduled for noon.
