NEWTON, Mass. – Mount Ida was held to four hits and no runs in each of their Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) softball games against Suffolk University and dropped a pair of close games to the Rams on Friday afternoon at The Softball Field.
Suffolk made a first-inning run stand up in the opening game, adding an insurance run late for a 2-0 victory, then plated a lone run in the top of the sixth to hold off the Mustangs 1-0 in game number two.
Game 1: Suffolk 2, Mount Ida 0
The Rams plated a run in the top of the first inning on a bases loaded walk to first baseman Lindsay Pagano (Wyckoff, N.J.) after they had filled the bags with two outs thanks to a double by catcher Erin McAndrews (Marblehead, Mass.), who came around to score, a walk, and a single by Meredith Ball (Nahant, Mass.).
Neither team recorded a hit between the bottom of the third and the top of the sixth, which included the Suffolk half of the fifth inning, when they scored a run thanks to three walks and a bases-loaded error that came off the bat of Ball, which scored second baseman Kristen Young (Windsor, Conn.).
Senior shortstop Kirsten Guerrero (Fairfield, Conn.) doubled to right center in the bottom of the sixth , but the Mustangs were unable to drive her in, as Rams pitcher Sarah Chasse (Salem, Mass.) got Nickole Soto (Marlboro, Mass.) to fly out to left field.
Chasse picked up her fifth win of the year by working seven scoreless innings, allowing just four hits and two walks while striking out six. She tossed 99 pitches in the game, 67 of them for strikes, and sealed the victory when she stranded Emma Morton (Winchester, Mass.) and Gina Onorevole (Lafayette, N.J.), who had two hits in the game, on the base-paths in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Mount Ida freshman Nicole Handzel (Palmer, Mass.) struck out five batters and allowed two runs, one of them earned and five hits, all of them to different Suffolk batters, while walking five.
Game 2: Suffolk 1, Mount Ida 0
The teams remained in a scoreless deadlock until the top of the sixth inning when Pagano lifted an RBI double to left center field, scoring right fielder Anna Grace Maggs (Schenectady, N.Y.), who had singled to left field with one out and then stole second before Pagano's two-out hit.
The Mustangs looked to strike back in the bottom of the frame with a two out rally. Shannon McArthur (Coventry, R.I.) singled through the left side and Guerrero reached on an error that sent her to second and McArthur all the way to third.
Freshman pitcher Kim Crucioli (North Andover, Mass.) was able to get Soto to pop up to second to end the chance for Mount Ida to immediately re-tie the game.
Crucioli was as effective as Chasse had been, pitching seven strong shutout innings and striking out four while issuing just four hits and no walks.
Freshman Kaitlyn Muhlenforth (Bohemia, N.Y.) fell to 1-6 on the season despite allowing just one run on seven hits over seven innings of work.
McArthur had two hits in the second-game loss, both of them singles, while Pagano was the only Ram to have two hits in either game.
Mount Ida (5-15, 4-8 GNAC) takes a day off before continuing their 2014 GNAC schedule on Sunday with a 12:00 PM doubleheader at Simmons College.
The Rams (9-17, 3-7 GNAC) return to Boston tomorrow where they will continue their run of six straight days of games with a twin-bill against Norwich at 1:00 PM.