WILLIAMSTOWN, MA — It may be getting to the point that simply calling the 2021 Williams College softball team the Cardiac Kids just isn't enough.
In a season of improbable comebacks, the Ephs did it yet again Saturday. Trailing by six runs after three ½ innings in the second game of a doubleheader — and down four with just two at-bats left — they rose off the mat to defeat archrival Amherst, 10-9 and sweep a twinbill while taking a commanding lead of the NESCAC's West Division.
Saturday's second game was chock full of drama, down to the very last play. The Mammoths were down one run with one run in, the bases loaded, and two outs in the top of the seventh inning when Sadie Pool ripped a liner back to the circle that glanced off
Kirstin Mapes glove and did a slow roll toward shortstop. Eph senior
Jenny Hickey swept in and fired to first where first year first sacker Kelly McGuigan went into the stretch. The result was a bang-bang that ended the game when the umpire ruled Pool out.
The win improved Williams to 8-0 on the season while the Mammoths fell to 4-4. The two teams will meet again Sunday for a game scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. The Ephs won Saturday's first game 2-0, riding a 2-hit shutout by Mapes to victory.
Eph head coach
Kris Herman had this to say when asked about the day's events and her team's ability to rally and win the close games.
"You do what you do, and the next time you do it better," she said. "And you don't stop. Obviously pleased with today's total team effort."
Amherst built a 6-0 lead on a solo home run by Autumn Lee in the first and a big two-run single over shortstop by Rachel Lovejoy in the second. Lovejoy struck again in the fourth with a two-run homer that gave the visitors a six-run lead.
Down 6-1 entering the fifth,
Aly Granados sparked a Williams rally with a single to right. After an out, McGuigan ripped a grounder through the shortstop hole. Senior
Gabi Cirigliano then put together a game-changing at-bat, working her way to a 3-2 count before clubbing a three-run homer to make it 6-4.
However, in the top of the sixth, Randi Finkelstein roped a two-run homer down the left-field line to push the Mammoths lead to 8-4. It would be Granados again who ignited the Ephs' sixth-inning rally with a line drive single to right.
Mara Kipnis followed with a single to right before McGuigan sent a pitch into orbit, a three-run homer to center that demanded beverage service before it came down on the women's soccer field well beyond the fence.
Still up a run, Amherst turned to game one starter Talia Bloxham, who retired Cirigliano and Mapes to be on the verge of distinguishing the Williams rally. However,
Bailey Burger-Moore lined a frozen rope into left-center field for a double and senior
Dacia Green reached on an error. Up stepped Hickey, and once again she rose to the occasion, lashing an RBI-double into right-center field to tie the game, 8-8. Herman turned to first-year Tyler Wise as a pinch-hitter, and it paid off when Wise's grounder to third was thrown away, allowing both Green and Hickey to score and giving Williams a 10-8 lead.
Adhya Tandon, making her first appearance in a Williams uniform in relief of game two starter
Maya Hartman, started the seventh and struck out the first batter, but a Lovejoy double followed by a single forced Herman to turn to Mapes and set up the dramatic ending.
Tandon did earn her first collegiate victory, allowing eight hits and two earned runs over three innings of relief, walking one and striking out one. Mapes earned her second save.
Burger-Moore was 3 for 4 at the dish with a run scored while Kipnis was 2 for 3 with a walk and a run scored. McGuigan and Cirigliano were each 2 for 4 with 3 RBI, 2 runs scored and a home run.
Mapes dominated game one from the circle. After a throwing error put a Mammoth on with one out in the first, she retired 17 straight Amherst hitters. Lovejoy did single in the third, but was thrown out at second by right fielder Cirigliano on the play.
Williams took a 1-0 lead in the second when Granados' grounder up the middle scored Burger-Moore, who had walked with one out. The Ephs added an insurance run in the fifth when Kipnis roped a double right, took third on a throwing error and scored on a sacrifice fly from McGuigan.
The Mammoths threatened in the top of the seventh. An error and a single put runners on first and second with no outs. After a pop out, Finkelstein ripped a hard one-hopper destined for left field. But Hickey dover fully-extended to her right, gloved the ball and then threw to Burger-Moore at third for the force out. Mapes then retired Pool on a fly out to center field to end the contest.
Mapes improved to 5-0 by allowing just two singles. She did not walk a batter and struck out two. Kipnis was 2 for 3 with a run scored while Granados was 2 for 3 with an RBI.
