EASTON, Pa. – Holy Cross claimed both ends of Sunday's Patriot League softball doubleheader, winning game one, 3-2, and game two, 7-3.
Prior to the game, Lafayette honored the members of the class of 2023:
Erica Brasher,
Grace Harvey,
Jasmine Nguyen,
Kaili Reitano and
Julia Roman on Senior Day.
The first game picked up in the top of the third inning after it was suspended from Saturday due to weather. The Leopards got off to a hot start on a muggy afternoon on Saturday at Metzgar Fields. Sophomore
Harlie Bickett ripped a triple to the gap in right center field. The next two batters walked, prompting Holy Cross to pull its starter. The next batter,
Marisa Powell, drew a walk to plate the first run. Two batters later, fellow freshman
Megan Coyle drove home the final run of the inning on a sac fly. Lafayette led 2-0.
Holy Cross tied the game in the top of the third. Jessica Mott doubled home a run and the Crusaders added another on a throwing error to knot the game at 2-2. Holy Cross had a runner on second with no outs when the game was suspended due to threatening weather. On Sunday,
Morrigan Gardiner worked out of the jam and the game remained tied.
The visitors took the lead in the fifth inning on a Mott triple. The Leopards avoided further damage in the inning, as
Harlie Bickett looked back a runner at third and started off a 6-3-2 double play that cut down a runner at home on a close play.
The Leopards could not reach Holy Cross reliever Sophia Roncone who entered the game in the first inning. She retired the Lafayette lineup in order in the second, third and fourth innings. The Leopards put runners in scoring position in the fifth and sixth, but couldn't push home the tying run.
In the seventh,
Grace Hausamann led off with a pinch-hit single up the middle. Bickett smacked a ball to left that sent the leftfielder back near the warning track for the first out. Roncone got the next two batters to end the game, finishing with 10 strikeouts. Gardiner struck out five and allowed two earned runs on eight hits over seven innings.
In game two, it was back-and-forth play through the early going. Holy Cross scored a run in the first but Lafayette answered with three in the bottom of the first. Reitano singled home the first run and then two more scored on an error.
Lafayette's 3-1 lead was short-lived because Holy Cross scored three in the top of the second off Leopard starter
Jacqueline Cal. Anna Brait, who was stellar defensively on Sunday, doubled home a pair in the second and doubled again in the fourth to push Holy Cross to a 5-3 advantage through four and a half innings.
The Crusaders added two more runs in the sixth inning, one coming on a solo home run by Claire McCann to stretch the final margin to 7-3.
Cal was the Leopards' pitcher of record, giving up five runs on eight hits over four innings. Sawai allowed two runs on five hits while pitching the final three frames. Holy Cross starter Megan Yurchick limited Lafayette to three runs (all unearned) on four hits with six strikeouts.
The teams will wrap up the series at noon on Monday with a single game.
