Amherst, Mass. – The visiting Trinity College Bantams handed the Amherst College Lord Jeffs a 6-4 loss in softball action this afternoon.  Trinity improves to 18-8 with its third win in a row and its 14th in 15 games since posting a 4-7 mark during its spring break trip to Florida in March.  Amherst drops to 15-12 and has its winning streak snapped at four games.

Trinity, which has a five-game winning streak against the Lord Jeffs, held a 5-0 lead after two innings and chalked up 13 hits today while holding Amherst to six.  Sophomore starting pitcher Katherine Poulos (Wilton, Conn.) earned the complete-game victory to improve to 6-3, allowing only one earned run in seven solid innings. Poulos struck out two and walked one. 

Junior 2B Katherine Stoltenberg (Montgomery, N.J.), freshman 3B Caroline Blanchard (Norwich, Conn.) and junior co-captain 1B Nicole Nardella (Beverly, Mass.) strung together one-out singles to load the bases in the top of the first inning. After a grounder to second base allowed the Jeffs to get the force out at home, rookie DH Kerry McCarthy(Andover, Mass.) reached on an infield single to bring around one run, with an Amherst error giving the Bantams another run for an early 2-0 lead.  The Bantams added three runs in the second inning, with Stoltenberg belting a two-RBI double off the fence in left field. Nardella then made it a 5-0 game by bringing Stoltenberg home with a double down the right field line. Poulos, meanwhile, got into a rhythm for the visitors, sitting the Jeffs down in order in the bottom of the second and third innings.

Amherst senior tri-captain Emily Neill disrupted the Trinity pitchers' flow when she doubled to the gap in right center with one out in the fourth. First-year Reilly Horan followed by sending a line drive to right field that resulted in a two-base error. A Stephanie Clegg '12 liner to right wasn't deep enough for a sacrifice fly, but the ensuing throw into the infield made its way to the backstop and allowed Neill to score from third, giving the Jeffs their first run of the game.  Trinity made it 6-1 in the sixth when Stoltenberg scored on a wild pitch, but Amherst responded with three runs in the bottom half of the frame. After shortstop Carly Dudzik '12 walked and Neill and Horan each singled to load the bases with one out, the Jeffs caught a break when Trinity tried to get a force out at home but threw the ball away. Sophomore catcher Annemarie Iker brought the score to 6-4 when she singled through the right side to plate Horan, but the comeback bid ended there.

Stoltenberg, Nardella, senior co-captain SS Patricia Cipicchio (Lexington, N.C.), freshman OF Amelia Mostovoy (San Francisco, Calif.) and junior OF Melanie Orphanos (Danbury, Conn.) each had two hits for Trinity, with Stoltenberg scoring two runs with a pair of RBIs.  The only Amherst player with multiple hits was Neill, who went 3-for-3 and scored two runs. Dudzik, Horan and Iker each finished 1-for-3.  Senior tri-captain Alex Chang-Graham took the loss for Amherst, dropping to 7-6 after pitching the first five innings. Only two of the runs she allowed were earned, as the Jeffs committed four errors on the day. Chang-Graham allowed 10 hits and struck out four. First-year Theresa Kelley closed things out for Amherst, allowing one run on three hits in two innings of relief.

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