WESTFIELD, Mass. – The Keene State College softball team brought the tying run to the plate in the seventh inning after trailing 4-0 in the first, but could not get any closer, dropping a 5-3 decision to Westfield State University in the second game of a rescheduled non-conference doubleheader on Sunday at Sullivan Field. The Owls, who set a program wins record at 33-1 with the victory in the nightcap, also took the opener 11-3 in five innings.
KSC (16-17) has dropped four in a row and six of their past eight, but will now embark on a six-game week that includes two crucial Little East Conference doubleheaders at home against Plymouth State University (7-5 LEC) on Tuesday and on the road Saturday at the University of Massachusetts-Boston. The Owls are currently tied for the sixth and final playoff spot with the University of Southern Maine and UMass-Boston at 4-8 in the conference. UMB will host last-place Western Connecticut State University (1-11 LEC) on Tuesday while USM hosts Rhode Island College (7-5 LEC) on Tuesday and visits WestConn on Saturday.
The weekend will be one Keene State will want to move on from quickly regardless, as big innings continue to alter games significantly. In the opener, Westfield (33-1) scored seven times to break a scoreless tie in the bottom of the second, at one point getting a two-run single from Sarah Hough and a two-run double by Hannah Wodecki consecutively to balloon a one-run lead to 5-0. The frame had begun with a triple by Kassidy LaTour, who then scored on a wild pitch. It did not seem like a big inning was brewing when
Marina Gronbach got Arielle Ostman to bounce into a fielder's choice for the second out, leaving runners at first and second, but a walk followed before the two game-breaking hits.
Offensively, KSC could not get much going against Isabella Schaffer (5-0), who allowed one run and five hits while striking out six over four innings. The Owls put two on in the third as
Abbie Monkevicz singled up the middle to lead off the inning before
Cainen Avery picked up a base hit with two down, but Schaffer got the dangerous
Elyse Picard to fly out to keep it 7-0. Westfield then tacked on three more in the bottom half as Rylie Camacho and Wodecki cracked RBI doubles before Mia Alfonso's sacrifice fly, and that more or less told the story of the first game for KSC. The Owls got three back off the deficit as
Abby Weiterman doubled to begin the fourth and later scored on
Hailey Merrill's RBI single with two outs before Picard added a run-scoring double in a two-run fifth, but the home team ended the game by run-rule on Caroline O'Donnell.
Gronbach (1-1) took the loss, allowing five hits and seven runs in 1.2 innings while walking five and striking out two. Picard had two hits including a double, but KSC was outhit 15-7. Wodecki (3-4, 2 2B, 3 RBI, 2 R), LaTour (3-4, 2B, 3B, 2 RBI, R), and Ella Melanson (3-3) all had three-hit efforts for the home team.
More two-out runs proved costly in the second contest, as Westfield jumped out to a 4-0 lead right away by recording five consecutive hits in the first inning after KSC got the first two outs. Wodecki began the uprising with another double, and an RBI single by Alfonso followed. LaTour then got her own base hit, followed by a run-scoring single by Reagan Salvatore. O'Donnell then doubled to the gap to make it 4-0.
Still down by the same score, the Owls had a big opportunity in the third as
Morgan Rodrigues walked and Picard reached on infield single to put two on with nobody out. Two batters later, a miscue by Arielle Ostman in center gave KSC a bases loaded chance with one out, but two infield popups ended the threat.
Olivia Souers and
Ashley Connor slowed down Westfield from there, but the Owls' late rally came up short. KSC got on the board when Picard worked a seven-pitch walk to begin the fifth before later scoring on Weiterman's RBI single to make it 4-1.
Kalee Keyser singled and Rodrigues took a free pass in the sixth as KSC put the tying runs on and the go-ahead run at the plate in the form of Picard, but Shayna Bakun (4-0) got her to fly to center. The Westfield arm allowed four hits, walked four while only striking out one, and surrendered 12 balls in the air – but was never hurt by it as Keene State left nine on base against her and 10 on overall in the game. Westfield got the run right back in the bottom half of the sixth when Hough singled home Ostman, again with two outs, and that proved big when the visitors staged a last-chance rally attempt in the seventh.
Lily Mandel began the frame by walking on five pitches and Avery followed with a single into right center to put the tying run on deck. It came to the plate with one out after
Kalle Halvorsen's run-scoring single made it 5-2 before Monkevicz grounded into a fielder's choice to make it a two-run game, but Lyla Dwyer struck out Gronbach swinging on a full count pitch to end it.
Souers (2-6) took the loss for KSC, allowing six hits and four runs while walking two and striking out one. Connor pitched four innings of one-run ball with a walk and a strikeout.
"We had a good bounce back in Game 2…the ending was not what we wanted, but our offense started to come back to life and we are feeling good about that going into this week," said Owls head coach Haley Chandler.
Keene State's home twinbill against Plymouth (15-16-1, 7-5 LEC) on Tuesday begins at 2:30 p.m.
