Game One Box
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Game Two Box
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Gallery
WILLIAMSTOWN, MA — Junior Morgan Simpson fired a
complete-game seven-hitter in the opener Sunday to help the
Williams College softball team take game one of a doubleheader with
Little 3 rival Wesleyan, 5-1, but the Ephs had to settle for a
split when two unearned runs in the top of the sixth inning of the
nightcap allowed the Cardinals to escape with a 2-1 victory.
Wesleyan improved to 11-11 overall and 5-1 in the NESCAC West
Division, while the Ephs moved to 10-11 overall and 1-2 in the
West. Williams travels to Smith Wednesday for a doubleheader
beginning at 4 p.m.
The first game was decided by a five-run second inning for
Williams that included two home runs. Simpson helped herself out
with a lead-off solo shot to left-center field that made it 1-0.
Becky Sansone capped the frame with a three-run shot to dead center
field that made it 5-0.
Simpson had a strong day in the circle, allowing seven hits and
two walks while striking out five. She had a shutout until two outs
in the top of the seventh, but Wesleyan's Talia Bernstein grounded
an RBI-single to left to make it 5-1. Simpson then froze Taylor
Zavadsky looking for the final out and the win.
Joey Lye was 3 for 4 with an RBI and a runs scored for the Ephs.
Sansone finished 2 for 4 with three RBI and a run scored. Senior
Taryn Goodman also had two hits in the win.
Karla Hargrave took the loss for Wesleyan, allowing nine hits
and five runs, all earned, over six frames. Bernstein and Zavadsky
were each 2 for 4 for the Cards.
Game two was a pitcher's duel between Wesleyan's Meaghen Dendy
and the Ephs' Mary Beth Daub. The Ephs broke through with a run in
the bottom of the fifth when Lye doubled with two outs and scored
on a clutch single by Sansone.
But Wesleyan countered with two of its own in the top of the
sixth. Dendy triggered the rally with a lead-off double to right
center. Back-to-back grounders by Marcia Whitehead and
Bernstein were then misplayed into two-base errors, allowing two
runs to score and the Cardinals to take a 2-1 lead.
Dendy left one Williams baserunner stranded in both the sixth
and seventh to finish off the win. She allowed six hits over seven
full frames, walking two and striking out one. Daub took the
hard-luck loss for the Ephs, hurlign seven frames of three-hit
ball. She walked one and struck out three. Both runs charged to her
were unearned.
Dendy, Bernstein and Hargrave had the Wesleyan hits. Goodman was
2 for 3 for Williams.
