Softball drops three straight to CCC opponents

Tyger Allen, Herald Reporter

The softball team has finished their four-game homestand with a Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) record of 1-3. On Tuesday, the Hawks took on the Fighting Scots of Gordon College and split the doubleheader before dropping both games to Salve Regina University a day later.

After three postponed games, the Hawks finally played their first home games of the regular season against Gordon and had a four-run rally in the first inning to take a commanding lead. The Hawks went on to score three more unanswered runs for a 7-0 lead after only the fourth inning.

Gordon staged a comeback with three runs in the sixth and looked to carry that newfound momentum into the final inning. The Fighting Scots loaded the bases as sophomore pitcher Alyssa Murray tried to close the game out.

Gordon capitalized on an error by the Hawks infield and cut the lead to three with the bases loaded. Sophomore Tara Chatowsky bailed Murray out by catching the third out in right field, sealing a 7-4 victory for the Hawks.

For the second game of their doubleheader, Hawks coach Joyce Maudie placed some fresh players on the field including sophomore catcher Alexis Romano, freshman Michaela Federico and junior Bella Malvinni.

The move would not pay off on the scoreboard as the Hawks found themselves down 10-6 after five innings. Maudie shuffled around pitchers throughout the game and even went back to Alyssa Murray, who pitched the full game prior.

The Hawks surrendered seven consecutive runs to Gordon and lost the second game to their CCC opponent 12-6, giving them a 1-1 record in conference play.

A day later, the Hawks faced off against Salve Regina in the first in-conference game for the Seahawks. Salve Regina went up early in the first off a passed ball, but the Hawks went up by one in the sixth inning. For the time being, it appeared that the Hawks would beat Salve Regina for the first time since March 30, 2016.

It wasn’t until the seventh inning where the Seahawks would reclaim the lead with four runs to make it 5-2. The Hawks could not come back and dropped the first game of the doubleheader.

In the second game, the Seahawks took full control early, mounting an eight-run second inning and did not stop there. The onslaught continued and the Hawks fell to Salve Regina for the second time that day, this time by a score of 14-0.

“We’re still early in the season, we have a huge season still ahead of us,” said junior catcher Micaela Pohl. “We know what we did wrong today, we’re going to learn from it and work on it and just get better.”