Hartford, Conn. – First-year Kayla Holland
(Attleborough, Mass.) picked up an RBI-single in the
13th inning as the Tufts University Jumbos edged the
Trinity College Bantams, 5-4, in softball action this afternoon on
Campus Field. The Jumbos improve to 19-14 overall and 9-3 in
the league, while the Bantams drop to 19-10 overall and 7-2 in the
league.
Trailing 3-2 in the bottom of the seventh, Trinity sophomore
Caroline Blanchard (Norwich, Conn.) delivered a
game-tying RBI single for the Bantams, forcing extra innings.
With two outs in the bottom of the 12th, Tufts junior
Lena Cantone (Southington, Conn.) hit an RBI
single to give the Jumbos a 4-3 lead. Trinity answered in the
bottom half of the inning as senior co-captain Katherine
Stoltenberg (Montgomery, N.J.) scored on a dropped infield
pop-up that would have been the game-ending out.
Tufts got the run right back in the top of the 13th
on an RBI single by Holland, on her only hit of the
afternoon. Sophomore Rebecca DiBiase (Wellesley,
Mass.) set the Trinity offense down in order in the bottom
of the 13th, closing out 6.1 strong innings on the mound
for the Jumbos, after having picked up a crucial relief strikeout
to end a Trinity threat back in the seventh.
Tufts got out to a 3-0 lead in the first, highlighted by a
two-run homerun by first-year Jo Clair (Glastonbury,
Conn.), her league leading 16th of the
season. Three players are tied for second in the league in
homeruns, with five apiece. Trinity scored two runs in the
bottom of the first, but the bats on both sides calmed after that,
until the bottom of seventh, when Trinity tied the game.
Trinity senior Kristen Anderson (West Haven,
Conn.) picks up the tough-luck loss, just her third of the
season, going all 13 innings on the hill for the Bantams, and
allowing just three earned runs. DiBiase improves to 5-8 on
the year. Trinity senior Nicole Nardella (Beverly,
Mass.) and Tufts junior Mira Lieman-Sifry
(Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y.) notched three hits apiece in
the game.
The Bantams need to win one of two games in tomorrow's
doubleheader with Tufts in order to earn a spot in the 2011 NESCAC
Championship Tournament. To earn home-field advantage,
Trinity would need to win both games.
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