Kevin Saxe
@ksaxe98
On a blustery, and at times rainy, Potter Field, the Springfield College softball team split a NEWMAC doubleheader against Wellesley; winning the first game before dropping the second game.
Game 1
The first game, like so many others this year, started off as the Talia Loda show.
Loda was dominant to start off by tossing three scoreless innings. She retired the first nine hitters she faced. Backing her up were two first inning runs as Allie Wheeler had an RBI single and Yaixsa Vargas also scored a run.
However, after the final out of the third inning, the wind starting howling and the rain started falling. It wasn’t just rain as it also hailed as well. Coming out of an approximately fifteen-minute rain delay, the Blue fought back to get a run in the fourth and two in the fifth off Loda, who had been untouchable prior to the delay. Loda would bounce back and shut the Blue after the fifth inning.
Trailing by a run headed to the bottom of the fifth inning, the Pride’s offense went to work to regain the lead for good. Leading off was arguably one of the Pride’s hottest hitters of late in Vargas. She led off with a double to the right center gap. After Wheeler reached on an error, both Alexyss Conley and Gabby Alfieri followed with back to back RBI singles. Thanks to another error and a sac fly the Pride finished the fifth inning up 6-3. From there the Pride would tack on another run in the sixth before Loda put the game away in the seventh to secure a 7-3 win for the Pride.
Game 2
Game two for the Pride started about as ugly as the weather was outside. Aided by two hits and a walk the Blue jumped out to a 2-0 lead before Springfield even stepped up to the plate. However, thanks to a questionable throw home by the Blue and an error on the third basemen the Pride were able to get back in the game and tie it at two. The Pride would take the lead in the bottom of the second on a two out RBI single from Kirsten Drobiak.
However, the third is where the errors would pile up. With two down in the inning an error by the Pride would allow a run to score and allow the Blue to tie the game at three. Before the inning was up the Pride would tack on another error to their total. An error to start the fifth would lead to the Blue scoring two and taking a 5-3 lead. Overall, the Pride would commit five errors in the game. This came from a Pride team that had 25 errors in 27 games including the first game of today’s doubleheader.
With the Pride down 6-3 going into the sixth, Jen Slane would lace a pinch hit two run single to knock the deficit to one run at 6-5. Despite getting runners to third with two outs in the sixth and seventh, and getting some hard contact, the Pride were unable to comeback.
Takeaways:
- Springfield has yet to find consistency in conference play. After today’s split with Wellesley the Pride fell to 7-7 in conference, with four games remaining on their conference schedule. For the Pride, they have lost a few close games this year, that could’ve easily went there way. Even though the Pride will more than likely enter the conference tournament anywhere from the third through the fifth seed, this is still a talented team that has sky high potential.
- The Pride are leaving too many runners on base. Too often on Tuesday, the Pride had prime opportunities and were not able to capitalize. If Springfield wants to win moving forward, they’re going to have to be able to drive in runs in the big moments.
Moving Forward
After splitting with Wellesley, the Pride have ten games remaining on the season. The Pride have four conference games left, as they’ll travel to Babson on Friday, before having senior day on Saturday at Potter Field, when the Pride host Smith. Before resuming conference play, the Pride travel to Westfield State tomorrow, for a doubleheader beginning at 3:30.
Featured photo courtesy of Reef Rogers.