MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – Middlebury College scored three times in the bottom of the first inning of the opener and four times in the fourth inning of the second game to balloon a 1-0 lead to five as the host Panthers went on to post 4-2 and 5-0 victories over the Keene State College softball team on Thursday afternoon.
The Owls (16-20) have dropped five straight, scoring eight runs in those games, but will now turn their attention to the final conference doubleheader of the regular season on Saturday at Plymouth State University (11:00 a.m.). After dropping two at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth earlier this week, KSC now must win both against the Panthers and hope for the correct combination of results across the league to qualify for next week's conference tournament hosted by the No. 1 seed – as of the moment Eastern Connecticut State University.
KSC scored in just one inning today, trimming a 4-0 deficit in half in the top of the fifth of the opener. After
Liv Whittier singled to center,
Molly Murray beat out a bunt single, and
Carissa Miller poked a single to right center to load the bases with nobody out,
Megan Strzegowski and
Kalee Keyser each came through with fly balls deep enough to plate runs against reliever Samantha Hausman after starter Abigail Jankowski (3-3) was removed following the three consecutive hits. Strzegowski's did not go down as a sacrifice fly, as Whittier scored on an errant throw.
However, those would be the only hits the Owls would manage in the opener, getting sent down 1-2-3 in the other six innings.
Middlebury took a quick lead, going up 1-0 three batters in on Olivia Scholes' RBI double. A miscue following Cate Viola's single then made it 2-0, and an RBI groundout by Olivia Fleming tacked on another.
That proved to be most all the offense Jankowski and Hausman would need. Jankowski allowed three hits and two unearned runs with two strikeouts before Hausman tossed three perfect innings.
KSC was blanked in the nightcap, mustering just three hits. It was just a 1-0 game into the fourth inning, but a critical three-run double by Scholes (with all the runs unearned) with two outs in the bottom half of that frame made it 5-0 Panthers, and the Owls were in a deep hole.
Story will be updated.
