Medford, Mass. - Senior Stefanie Tong (Burlingame,
Calif.) belted a two-run homer in the fifth inning to help
the Tufts University Jumbos overtake the visiting Trinity College
Bantams, 2-1, in a New England Small College Athletic Conference
(NESCAC) East Division softball game this afternoon at Spicer
Field. The Jumbos are now 17-11 overall and 7-2 in conference
play and have put themselves in prime position to grab one of the
two conference tournament berths from the East. Trinity
finishes the NESCAC slate at 8-4 and needs either two losses by
Bowdoin or three losses by Tufts in their divison games
against Bates and Colby, respectively, this weekend to qualify
for the post-season. The Bantams are 19-11 overall but have
dropped three in a row.
Both teams went scoreless through the first three innings, but
both teams let chances go by the boards as well. The Bantams had
two on with one out in the first, but junior 1B Nicole
Nardella (Beverly, Mass.) lined into an inning-ending
double play. In the second, Trinity had a runner in scoring
position with only one out, but again could not take advantage as
Tufts junior starting pitcher Izzie Santone (Madison,
Conn.) struck out a batter and forced a groundout.
Tufts left the bases loaded in the bottom of the second inning,
and in the third they stranded another two runners on base.
Trinity broke the scoreless tie in the top of the fourth as
Nardella started a rally with a one-out double. After Santone
recorded her fourth strikeout, first-year DP Kerry McCarthy
(Andover, Mass.) came through with a two-out, run-scoring
single to give the Bantams the 1-0 advantage.
Once again the Jumbos left the bases loaded, this time in the
bottom of the fourth. Junior C Julia Silberman (Somers,
N.Y.) led off the frame with a double, then Trinity
sophomore starting pitcher Katherine Poulos (Wilton,
Conn.) set down the following two batters. Sophomore CF
Lizzy Iuppa (Paramus, N.J.) and sophomore 3B
Mira Lieman-Sifry (Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y.) both
walked to load the bases, but sophomore 1B Lena Cantone
(Southington, Conn.) would ground out to second to end the
threat.
Santone was faced with another tough situation in the fifth
inning when the Bantams put two on base with only one out,
but battled back and retired the next two batters in order to
keep the Jumbo deficit at just one run. The bottom of the fifth
finally saw the Jumbos take advantage of an opportunity. Senior SS
Casey Sullivan (Berlin, Conn.) led off with a
double, and then moved over to third base on a sacrifice bunt from
first-year Emily Beinecke (Concord, Mass.). That
set the stage for Tong, who sent the ball down the left-field line
to notch her fourth home run of the year and drive in her 15th and
16th RBIs, giving Tufts the 2-1 lead. The ball bounced off the top
of the fence and over.
Trinity tried to strike back in the sixth inning, again putting
two runners on base, but Santone was able to work out of the jam as
she stranded the runners. The score remained 2-1 into the top of
the seventh where Santone would record her second 1-2-3 inning of
the game and give the Jumbos the victory. Santone earned the
complete-game victory and improved her record to 6-5 on the season.
She allowed just the one run on eight hits with five strikeouts and
one walk. Her counterpart Poulos went the full six innings for the
Bantams, giving up two runs on six hits with two strikeouts and one
walk. She is now 6-5 for the year.
Sullivan was the only Jumbo to record multiple hits, with a
single in the third and the double in the fifth that helped lead to
Tong's two-run homer. Lieman-Sifry, Beinecke, and Silberman
accounted for the other three hits for the Tufts offense. For
Trinity, Nardella finished 2 for 3 with a double, single and she
scored the lone Bantam run. No other Trinity player reached base
twice for the contest.
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