April 19: Senior
Kyle Plimpton allowed just four hits in a 1-0 shutout win for Saints softball over RPI in the first game of a Liberty League doubleheader in Troy on Sunday afternoon. She threw a combined 17 innings in the split, as RPI picked up a 9-8 win in an 11-inning showdown in game two. The Saints are now 12-10 overall and 5-5 against conference opponents, while RPI is 16-12 and 5-3.
The second game featured a four-run comeback by the Saints in the top of the seventh that forced extra innings, as well as a two-run ninth to take an 8-6 lead. RPI answered and then pushed across the game-winning run in the 11
th with the help of the international tiebreak rule, a sacrifice bunt and then a sacrifice fly.
Plimpton struck out eight in the complete-game win in game one; her 11
th of the season and second shutout. Kristina Weltzin was equally stellar in the circle for RPI, also allowing four hits and striking out seven, but a single by St. Lawrence senior
Brady Cooper in the fifth inning proved to be the difference.
With runners on first and second and two outs, Cooper stepped to the plate and drove a single up the middle to score sophomore
Carly Dziekan as the game-winning run.
Kelsey Murphy led the Saints at the plate with two hits in the contest, while
Jordan Sheridan also added a hit for the visitors.
St. Lawrence opened up a 2-0 lead through the first three innings, but the Engineers responded with a run in the bottom half of the third and again in the fourth before taking a 6-2 lead behind five hits in a four-run fifth inning.
With the game on the line in the top of the seventh, the Saints got four straight singles from Sheridan, Dziekan,
Kylee Knight and Cooper to manufacture the first run and make it 6-3.
Aisha O'Connor walked with the bases loaded to drive in the team's fourth run and after a pitching change for the Engineers,
Laura Finley singled up the middle to pull the Saints within one at 6-5. A fielder's choice by
Kelsey Murphy plated Cooper to tie the game and RPI went down in order in the bottom half of the frame to send the game to extra innings.
In the top of the ninth inning, O'Connor reached on an error by the RPI second baseman,
Emma Reakes walked and
Laura Finley singled to left to load the bases for Murphy.
The Bedford, N.H. native grounded out on a hot shot to second, but managed to plate O'Connor and give the Saints a 7-6 lead. Sophomore
Hannah Sears then stepped to the plate and rip a line-drive single to left to score Reakes and increase the lead to 8-6.
Each of the Engineers' next three runs were courtesy of Morgan Ten Eyck, as she hit a two-RBI single in the bottom half of the ninth to keep her team alive and has the game-winning sac fly in the 11
th.
Plimpton was the pitcher of record again in game two, as she threw 10 innings, allowed seven hits and five runs and finished with six strikeouts in the loss. Stephanie Caudle, who came in in relief of Weltzin, pitched five innings and gave up three hits and two earned runs with six strikeouts of her own in the win.
The Saints will travel to Hamilton College on Tuesday afternoon for a midweek non-conference doubleheader with the first pitch scheduled for 3:30 p.m.
