WORCESTER, Mass. – Caroline Hall and
Maggie Klug each drove in a pair of runs to push Lafayette softball past Holy Cross, 6-4, on Sunday afternoon.
Hall, Klug and
Kylee Sweet accounted for six of the Leopards' seven hits on the afternoon. Their timely hitting was backed up by a strong relief pitching performance from
Parker Rowden, who limited Holy Cross to two runs on five hits over five innings. Sunday marked the team's second conference series victory of the season and the program's most wins overall since 2017.
The hosts led early, scoring two runs in the second inning. With two outs, Emily McCandless (double) and Brook Ventrelle (single) each drove in a run off Leopard starter
Sophia Alvarez-Backus before she was lifted from the game. Holy Cross manufactured a run in the third. Silje Emery led off with a single. A sac bunt and a flyout put her on third with two outs. Emery scored on a wild pitch for the 3-0 lead before Rowden ended the inning with a strikeout.
The Leopards got on the board in the fifth inning. The team's leading hitter, Sweet, plated classmate
Dani Rosner with a one-out double. Later in the inning, the Leopards had runners on the corners. Head coach
Kelliner Croushore took advantage of the situation, using the first-and-third steal play to move Sweet home and pull Lafayette within one, 3-2.
Momentum kept building for Lafayette after Rowden retired the Crusaders quickly in the bottom of the fifth. The Leopard bats stayed hot. Klug (single) and
Jessica Tejera (walk) started the inning and
Olivia Catalina successfully laid down a sac bunt to place two runners in scoring position. Hall did the rest, smacking the first pitch she saw to right field to score two runs and give the Leopards their first lead of the game, 4-3.
Rowden made quick work of Holy Cross in the sixth, retiring the side with three flyouts. In the seventh, Lafayette loaded the bases with one out. Klug recorded her second hit of the afternoon to score two more and stretch the Lafayette margin to 6-3.
Holy Cross pushed across one run in the last of the seventh before Rowden ended the suspense with a pop out to shortstop in the 6-4 final for her team-leading seventh win of the season. Bridget Mulkeen took the loss, surrendering three runs on four hits over two innings.
Lafayette continues Patriot League play on April 25-26, hosting Colgate for a three-game series including Senior Day on Sunday.
