Kissimmee, FL – The Montclair State softball team played identical scoring games with mixed results as the Red Hawks split for the second straight day at The Spring Games on Tuesday. MSU (2-2) knocked off Suffolk University 6-2 before falling to Lake Forest in extra innings by the same score.
In the first game, junior first baseman
VALENTINA CUCCI went 3-for-4 and drove in three runs for Montclair.
AMBER POWERS and
ALEXIS LAW each went 2-for-4 with an RBI. Junior righthander
KIARA RUIZ (1-1) tossed a complete game scattering eight hits with five strikeouts and two walks.
Cucci gave Montclair State a 1-0 lead in the top of the first with a single through the right side that scored
KAYLEE POWERS. The Rams (3-2) answered with two runs in their half of the first however that would be all the damage Suffolk would do against Ruiz, who allowed only five hits the rest of the way.
The Red Hawks regained the lead in the second scoring twice with two outs.
AMBER POWERS singled to left field bringing home
TAYLOR BROWN. After a walk to
KAYLEE POWERS, the sisters moved up a base on a wild pitch with
AMBER POWERS scoring the go-ahead run.
MSU would get its final two runs in the top of the sixth.
AMBER POWERS led off with a triple and
KAYLEE POWERS bunted her way on with hit and then taking second on the play. Cucci followed with a single in the right-center gap scoring the Poiwers' sisters for the 6-2 advantage.
The second contest proved to be a pitcher's duel between MSU's
NICOLE MAJEWSKI and Lake Forest's Missy Dieckman-Meyer who each allowed a run through the first seven innings. The Foresters (4-3) got their run in the fifth as Alyssa Grimm doubled home the game's first round.
ELENA RADESICH tied the game in the sixth with an RBI double of her own.
But Lake Forest was able to break open the game in the eighth scoring five times. Montclair got one back in its half as
AMBER POWERS scored on a misplayed ball.
Majewski (1-1) took the loss as she pitched into the eighth inning. The righty allowed eight hits and five runs (four earned) with three strikeouts and a walk.
AMBER POWERS had two hits for MSU.
The Red Hawks are off now and return to action on Thursday, March 14 with two more games. Montclair faces Gettysburg College at Noon followed by a 4:15 contest with Newbury College.
