VIRGINIA BEACH, Va.—The Allegheny College softball team swept the final day of the 2018 Virginia Wesleyan University Beach Bash Saturday (March 10) in Virginia Beach, Va.
The Gators downed Rhode Island College 15-14 before dispatching St. Joseph's College- Brooklyn 8-0.
GAME ONE
The Gators got to work right away as
Kelly Lafferty led off the game with her first career home run. Later in the inning, with
Hayley Behr and
Samantha Valera on base,
Jessica Zavolta blasted the second homerun of the inning for the Gators. In the top of the second, the Gators added one more run as a Lafferty single brought
Kyleigh Cason home, making it 5-0.
Rhode Island made up some ground in the second as they plated three runs to cut the lead to two.
Allegheny responded in the third, as a
Rachel Ramsey single brought
Jessica Gordon home. Ramsey came across the plate later in the inning on an error. However, Rhode Island had a big third inning as they scored five runs to take the lead, 8-7.
Trailing by one, the Gators had an offensive explosion in the fourth. For the inning, the Gators produced five hits and took advantage of four walks as they tallied eight runs in the inning to take a 15-8 lead.
Rhode Island made up some ground late, cutting the lead own to one run, but the Gator defense held tough to secure the 15-14 win.
Ramsey led the Gators with three hits on the day. Lafferty, Valera, Zavolta and Cason had two apiece. Lafferty and Zavolta drove home three runs apiece while Valera, Ramsey and Cason had two RBI apiece.
Victoria Vradenburg picked up the win on the mound, going three innings and allowing two earned runs.
Kala Mahen collected the save.
GAME TWO
After a 1-2-3 top of the first, the Gators got to work in the bottom of the frame. Valera earned a one-out walk and moved up on a Behr single. A Zavolta double to center brought Valera home.
Jessica Valerino then hit into an error which brought Behr across the plate for a 2-0 lead.
The score remained that way until the bottom of the fourth. After Cason was walked,
Sarah Rogan stepped in to pinch run, stealing second. An infield single by
Maria DiDonato moved her to third. A fielding error on Lafferty's at-bat brought Rogan home for the Gators' third run. With the bases loaded later in the inning, Zavolta was hit by a pitch, which scored DiDonato.
The Gators added one more in the bottom of the fifth. DiDonato reached on a fielder's choice. After stealing second, she took advantage of a pair of passed balls to score.
With a 5-0 lead in the bottom of the sixth, the Gators put the game away. With two outs, Valerino singled to center field. Gordon followed the hit up with one of her own. A Ramsey single to left field brought Valerino home and moved Gordon to third. Cason ended the game with a two RBI single to left field as the Gators picked up an 8-0 win.
Cason led the Gators with two hits and two runs batted in. Zavolta also had a pair of RBI while DiDonatio had two hits and two runs.
Baylee Tarnowski picked up her second win of the weekend on the mound. In 6.0 innings of shutout play, she allowed just five hits and no walks.
The Gators are back in action March 18 as they play Washington and Jefferson College in Clermont, Fla.
