Wednesday, April 10, 2013 (Northfield, VT) - The Mount Ida College softball team suffered a doubleheader set back to the Cadets of Norwich University on Wednesday afternoon. Mount Ida drops to (9-16, 3-11 GNAC) while the hosts improve to (19-4, 19-0 GNAC).
Sophomore pitcher Corinne Bait (Rochester, NH) took care of business single-handedly in Game 1. The Cadets' ace went the distance surrendering one earned run on seven hits while striking out six and walking one to earn her eighth straight victory and improve to 8-4 on the year. Bait also helped her cause by blasting a three-run home run in the bottom of the second inning to account for all of Norwich's offense in the opener.
Norwich spread out the offense in the nightcap with every batter but one recording at least one hit. Junior Abby Belcher (Winthrop, MA) and sophomore Kelly Travers (Whitman, MA) each hit two-run home runs as well to highlight the balanced offensive effort en route to a 10-2 win in five innings.
Junior pitcher Kylie Miller (Long Lake, NY) recorded her ninth win of the season on the mound in the second game after going all five innings, giving up no earned runs on six hits and one walk while striking out five.
Game 1
Norwich's bats were hot early accounting for five of its six hits in the game, Belcher provided the big blow by launching a towering shot that cleared the left-centerfield fence to score freshman Angie Hershberger (Felton, CA) and junior Erin Clark (Newbury, VT) who started the inning by singling and reaching on an error respectively.
After that, Mount Ida freshman pitcher Allie Norris (Plymouth, MA/Plymouth South) silenced the potent Cadet offense with just one hit over the remaining four innings.
The Mustangs finally cut into the Norwich lead in the top of the sixth inning when Nickola Soto (Marlboro, MA/Assabet Valley Regional) laced a line drive into the right-centerfield gap that rolled to the fence and allowed Kirsten Guerrero (Fairfield, CT/Fairfield Ludlowe) and Tiffany Hamann (Newton, MA/Newton North) to come around to score.
However, that's as close as Mount Ida would get as Baita shut the door the rest of the way getting two consecutive groundouts to strand Soto at third base and then retiring the Mustangs in order in the top of the seventh to seal the win.
Game 2
After a scoreless first inning in Game 2, Norwich got on the board first in the bottom of the second with Clark blooping an RBI single in to score senior Noel Byers (Iron Mountain, MI) to give the Cadets a 1-0 lead. NU added to the lead in the bottom of the third when Travers smoked a ball over the fence for her first home run of the season after leading the team with seven last season.
Mount Ida answered back in the top of the fourth inning, capitalizing on a pair of Norwich defensive miscues to score two unearned runs on a two-RBI single by Meghan Moriarty (Holbrook, MA/Holbrook) to score Soto and Cassie Durand (Dracut, MA/Dracut).
Norwich responded in the bottom half of the fourth taking advantage of a few Mount Ida errors of its own with four runs to kill any Mustang momentum and take a 7-2 lead. Miller and Hershberger each scored unearned runs and then Belcher punctuated the inning with her team-leading sixth home run of the season with a frozen rope over the left field fence to score two more runs.
The Cadets ended the game early in the bottom of the fifth with Justina George (Wallingford, CT) scoring an unearned run and then Taylor Morris (Haverhill, NH) lacing a two-run double to fence that scored Miller and Hershberger to give NU the eight-run lead it needed for the mercy-rule victory.
The Mustangs will be back in action on Saturday, April 13th, hosting a doubleheader on the campus of Mount Ida beginning at 12:00 p.m. Norwich will return to the diamond on Saturday when they travel to Rivier University for a Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) doubleheader, with first pitch slated for 10:00 a.m.
Some Content Courtesy of Norwich University Sports Information