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Box Score 2 CLERMONT, Fla. (Mar. 11, 2016) - The Molloy College softball team could not find an offensive groove on Friday (Mar. 11), falling in its first two games of the National Training Center Spring Games in Clermont, Fla. The Lions were defeated 2-1 by American International College in the first game before dropping a 5-1 contest versus the No. 21 Golden Rams of West Chester University of Pennsylvania.
Game One: AIC 2, Molloy 1Molloy held American International to just two hits over six innings, but five defensive errors cost the maroon and white in the long run. AIC scored in the first inning on an error, than tacked on another run in the third on an RBI groundout. Molloy answered back in the fourth as junior catcher
Milan Botte (Reston, Va.) cracked a solo home run to right field to cut the deficit in half. Though the Lions totaled nine hits in the contest, the team could not solve junior righty Alyssa Camargo (Covina, Calif.) who tossed a complete-game with five strikeouts. Senior pitcher
Tracey Balinskas (Edison, N.J.) pitched well in her six innings of work, striking out seven but taking the hard-luck loss after allowing two runs (one earned). The top-two batters for the Lions in the lineup against the Yellow Jackets went 4-for-7 as
Ashley Fedor (Monroe, Conn.) and
Olivia Banulski (Bristol, Conn.) each had two hits.
Game Two: West Chester 5, Molloy 1The second neutral-site meeting of the year between the two schools started off with a bang for the PSAC representatives. West Chester got to junior pitcher
Chelsea Hawks (Wading River, N.Y.) early in the first inning with a three-run outburst as the big blow came off the bat of sophomore catcher Cat Hammer (Philadelphia, Pa.), who hit a two-run home run to put the Golden Rams ahead by a 3-0 score. Later in the fifth inning, West Chester went deep again off of Hawks; this time, the two-run big fly came off the bat of senior Laura Altenburger (Feasterville, Pa.). Molloy was able to avoid the shutout in the bottom of the sixth inning as Botte launched her second solo home run of the day, this one over the fence in right field off of senior lefty Katie Erb (Douglassville, Pa.). Botte's round-tripper was one of just four hits for the maroon and white (the junior catcher had two of the base-knocks) off of Erb, who went the distance striking out seven batters and walking only one to pick up the 20th win for her squad this season.
The Lions are next in action on Saturday (Mar. 12) when the team faces the Skyhawks of Stonehill College in a doubleheader beginning at 9 a.m.
