Colby Softball Sweeps Trinity
WATERVILLE, Maine --- Alex Essman (Littleton, Mass.) scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the 12th inning to help the Colby College softball team to a 9-8 come-from-behind victory in the opener and Alyssa Lepore (Victor, N.Y.) kept up her hot hitting in both games as the Mules swept a doubleheader from Trinity College in New England Small College Athletic Conference East Division softball Saturday. Lepore doubled and homered in each game, including the 7-0 win in the nightcap.
Colby, which improved to 15-8 overall and 2-7 in the NESCAC, trailed, 8-2, after the top of the fifth inning of the opener. The Bantams got back-to-back homers from Nicole Nardella (Beverly, Mass.) and Ariana Mullin (Woodbridge, Conn.) in the first inning. Taylor LaRese (Southington, Conn.) had a two-run double and Jessica Tait (North Salem, N.Y.) had an RBI single in the third inning. Trinity got its final three runs in the fifth inning on a two-run single by Erika Klotz (Naperville, Ill.) and an RBI single from Katherine Stoltenberg (Montgomery, N.J.).
The Mules had lone runs in the first and fourth innings. Allyson Cheever (Augusta, Maine) scored on an error in the first inning and Meryl Poulin (Cape Elizabeth, Maine) had an RBI single in the fourth. Cheever had two hits and two runs in the game. The Mules exploded for four runs in the bottom of the fifth inning, with an RBI single from Barbara Santos (Topsfield, Mass.) and RBI groundouts from Essman and Tory Starr (Dunbarton, N.H.). Christine Gillespie, who had two hits and two runs, had a one-out single in the sixth inning and then scored on Lepore's home run to tie the game at 8-8.
Alyssa Crowell entered the game in relief in the fifth inning and worked the rest of the way for the victory for Colby. In the second game, Brittany Tasi (Shelton, Conn.) tossed a five-hit shutout and got more hitting support from Lepore. She doubled and scored in the third inning and smacked another two-run homer in the sixth inning. Essman and Santos had a RBI singles in a three-run fifth inning. Essman finished the game at 4-for-4 and Lepore was 2-for-3.
