The softball team went 3-1 last week against the Temple Owls and Mount St. Mary’s.
The team started last Wednesday’s game 23-12, looking to keep their six-game winning streak going when Temple came to West Long Branch, N.J.
Defensively, the Hawks got off to a great start. Third baseman, sophomore Vanessa Cardoza, made a nice grab on a line drive to third base, then doubled up the runner who was looking to score the Owls’ early first inning run. The Hawks, however, could not get anything going as they failed to bring home any of the runners who got on base.
Senior Lauren Sulick was on the mound for the Hawks. Sulick started off hot, getting out of the first two innings without giving up any runs. However, in the top of the third inning with the game still tied at zero, Sulick was looking to get out the inning with runners on second and third with two outs. The Owls’ Stephanie Pasquale knocked a double over the head of the right fielder to drive home the first two runs of the game for the owls.
MU was able to make it interesting in the bottom of the third inning with a runner on second, but again failed to bring home the run.
Sulick ran into trouble in the top half of the fourth inning, when she allowed five runs scored for the Owls. Sulick was missing her spots and with the infield not at its best, MU trailed 7-0 at the end of four.
The Hawks dent in the lead came in at the sixth inning when a wild pitch moved runners Kayla Weiser and Raelynn Galindo to second and third, and junior Shannon Fitzgerald drove home Weiser and senior Kate Kuzma drove home Galindo and Cardoza on a single to center field. However, MU could not move any closer and saw their six game winning streak snapped as they fell to the Owls 7-3.
The Hawks did capture the split in the second game. After giving up two runs in the first inning, the Hawks responded with four in the bottom of the first. All of the runs that MU scored came with two outs in the inning.
Cardoza drove home a run on a single to right field, followed by a Katie Schumacher triple to the right field corner. Kuzma later finished off the inning with a double that drove home the fourth run of the inning.
MU went into the fourth inning leading 5-2, but Temple asserted themselves with a leadoff home run. The Owls ended the inning down 5-3.
The Hawks were tied going into the bottom of the fifth when they extended their lead to 7-5. Tacking on one more run in the fifth inning, senior pitcher Jordan Barnet was able to close the door on the Owls, preserving the 8-5 win and a split of the double header. The Temple Owls fell to 19-18.
MU went into the weekend and beat Mount St. Mary’s by a combined score of 23-6. The Hawks won their first game by the score of 16-3. The Hawks scored five runs on Mount St. Mary’s in the third inning. They followed up in the fifth inning with two runs. The top of the sixth saw the Hawks tack on another pair of runs to push the lead to 9-2.
The Hawks scored seven runs in the seventh to extend their lead to 14. The play that highlighted the game for the Hawks was the grand slam home run that was hit by Galindo.
The Hawks followed that performance in the first game of the double header by rallying from two solo home runs to beat Mount St Mary’s in the double header 7-3. The Hawks moved to 26-13 over the weekend and will travel away to Piscataway, NJ to face Rutgers on Thursday, April 25.
PHOTO COURTESY of MU Photography
