Sofia Camillieri and Maeve Thompson had two hits in game one, Allison Kloft had two hits and drove in three runs in game two, and both Izzy Melanson and Marleigh Monroe earned wins in the circle as the St. Lawrence softball team swept the Potsdam State Bears in non-conference action Tuesday at Saints Softball Field.
 
St. Lawrence improves their record to 14-10 on the year while Potsdam drops to 7-14. 

"We walk away with two wins today, which is nice, but we didn't play our best ball and we know that," said Saints head coach Rosie Phillips. "We talk often about taking advantage of our opponents' mistakes, and today we did exactly that. However, we can't rely on solely mistakes to win us games, and we need to be able to adjust earlier in our at-bats. We had a couple clutch hits today that paid off for us. There were learning moments in today's series that will help us prepare for this weekend's games."

Stella VanGee was also 2-for-2 in game two, including a run-scoring triple and a double while Vivian Johnson recorded a triple in game one. Both Melanson and Monroe pitched complete games with Melanson surrendering two earned runs in her seven innings to boost her record to 5-2 on the season. Monroe also allowed two earned runs in seven innings, allowing just five hits and fanning six batters in her third win of the season. 


 

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Game 1: St. Lawrence 4, SUNY Potsdam 3

The Bears struck first in the opener, plating two runs in the first inning off of three singles and three stolen bases. 

In the Saints turn of the inning, Johnson led off with a triple and then scored on a single by Caelen Jahnle. After a couple ground ball outs moved Jahnle to third, she was driven home by an infield single from Thompson, as each squad plated two runs in the first. 

Melanson was solid through the next two innings, retiring a stretch of eight straight batters going back to the first inning with two of these outs via the strikeout.

Potsdam got two runners on in the third inning with a walk and a single and nobody out, but Melanson got two weakly hit ground balls and a flyball out to escape the jam with no runs. 

After a few innings without any production from the Saints in through four innings, they were able to add a run in the fifth. Emily Wendt singled, Johnson got down a successful sacrifice bunt, and then back-to-back errors allowed Wendt to cross the plate, giving the Scarlet and Brown a 3-2 advantage and the home team headed into the six inning holding their first lead of the game. 

In the bottom of the frame, the Bears were able to get their first two runners on with a walk and a single, and then after Melanson struck out the next two, another single loaded the bases up. Melanson got the next batter to ground out to Kloft at third to strand three runners and the Saints held onto their lead. 

In the Saints turn to bat, Thompson started the inning with a walk and then pinch runner Zoe Davenport ended up going first to home on a sac bunt by Fritz after the Bears committed two throwing errors on the play. 

Moving into the top of the seventh, Melanson had a 4-2 lead to work with. Potsdam, once again, did some damage with three straight singles scoring one run. A sac bunt then moved the tying run to third and the winning run to second with one away. The next batter for the Bears, Lexie Cottrill attempt to bunt her way on, but got thrown out at first. The runner on their attempted to score after the throw to first, but Camillieri connected with catcher Emily Crain to get the runner out at home, ending the game with a one-run victory for the Saints.
 

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Game 2: St. Lawrence 5, SUNY Potsdam 2

Monroe started game two with retiring the first eight batters, and ended the third inning with three strikeouts, one hit and no runs. 

The Saints got their first hit in the top of the third, a single from Johnson who was able to move to third after a couple of ground ball outs, but the Bears got the final out on a ground ball to third. 

In the bottom of the fourth, the Saints broke through off of a double by VanGee followed by a single from Marina Juan to plate the first run of the game. 

The Saints lead was short lived though, as in the following half inning, after a hit by pitch and a triple from the Bears, the game headed into the bottom of the fifth tied at 1. 

Kloft led off the St. Lawrence half of the fifth with a single, but despite the Bears retiring the next two batters, senior VanGee came through with a timely hit, a triple to deep center, scoring Kloft and giving the Saints the lead back, now up 2-1. 

The Saints tacked on some insurance in the bottom of the sixth. After Camillieri reached on an error, Wendt singled, and Johnson reached on a walk, Kloft cranked a double to left-center field, clearing the bases for three runs and the Saints' highest scoring inning of the day, and they were now leading 5-1 heading into the final at bats for Potsdam. 

Monroe got two quick outs in the seventh, but a double and a single gave the Bears their second run of the game. However, facing her counterpart at the plate with the game on the line, Monroe got ahead in the count 1-2 and Sam Horne made contact, but it was a feeble popup to shortstop to conclude the game. 
 

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Up Next:

The Saints will head downstate to Schenectady, N.Y. returning to Liberty League action with a pivotal doubleheader against the Union Garnet Chargers Friday, April 18.