Clermont, Fla. – The Trinity College offense posted double figures in two games, as the Bantams topped the New Paltz Hawks, 12-10, and the Grinnell College Pioneers, 13-1, in softball action today at the National Training Center. Trinity ends its Florida trip with a 7-5 record.
The Bantam bats were hard at work from the opening inning, as the first four batters of the day reached base and scored. Junior Katherine Poulos (Wilton, Conn.) was perfect on the mound through two innings, but ran into some trouble in the third, pitching with a 5-0 lead. The Hawks posted five runs in the inning – three earned – to tie the game at 5-5, before Trinity regained their lead with three runs in the third, highlighted by a two-run triple by sophomore Kerry McCarthy (Andover, Mass.).
Hawks junior Shelby Martin (New Paltz, N.Y.) tripled and scored to open the fourth, but the Bantams responded with three more runs, as sophomore Caroline Blanchard (Norwich, Conn.), who had tripled twice in the game, laid down a sacrifice bunt to set up consecutive RBI doubles by Abigail Ostrom (Carlisle, Mass.) and senior co-captain Nicole Nardella (Beverly, Mass.). New Paltz did not back down, as first-year Chelsea Kull (Maynorville, N.Y.) picked up a two-RBI single in the top of the fifth to cut the lead to 11-8. The Bantams responded with an Nardella RBI-single in the bottom half of the inning, before the Hawks made things interesting with run-scoring singles by junior Kristen Schork (Warwick, N.Y.) and Kull in the top of the sixth, but junior RHP Lindsay Gibbons (Basking Ridge, N.J.) escaped the inning with no further damage allowed. Senior Kristen Anderson (West Haven, Conn.) pitched a flawless seventh inning for the save.
After six Bantams recorded multi-hit performances in the first game, Trinity bested itself as seven players recorded multi-hit performances against Grinnell. Senior co-captain Katherine Stoltenberg (Montgomery, N.J.) led off the game with a walk and scored on a single by Ostrom to get the game started, before Trinity postedfive runs in the second, three in the third, and four in the fourth inning, in a mercy-rule-shortened game. Anderson, coming off a no-hitter on Wednesday and a perfect inning of relief in Game 1, set down the first ten batters but consecutive fourth-inning singles by first-year Aniela Wendt (Oconto, Wisc.), senior Kelsey Montgomery (Cheyenne, Wyo.) and junior Amanda Stromquist (Minneapolis, Minn.) led to the lone Grinnell run of the game. Anderson did not allow any other offense, finishing with five strikeouts and no walks in a five-inning three-hit performance. Trinity posted four triples on the day, including three in the opening game. Stoltenberg scored seven runs and collected five hits in the pair of wins, and Ostrom finished the day 4-7, including a walk, two doubles and a triple, three runs, and four RBI.
New Paltz box score
Grinnell box score
