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Box Score 2 ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. (Mar. 26, 2016) – The Molloy College softball team split an East Coast Conference doubleheader with the Mercy College Mavericks on Saturday (Mar. 26), winning the first game by a 3-2 score before dropping the latter half of the double-dip by the same 3-2 line. Molloy is now 15-11 and 6-2 in ECC play while Mercy is 9-10 overall and 3-2 in conference competition.
Game One: Molloy 3, Mercy 2The maroon and white survived the long ball from the Mavericks and utilized a big sixth inning to claim a 3-2 win over the opposition in the first game of the Saturday doubleheader. Junior starter
Chelsea Hawks (Wading River, N.Y.) and Mercy's McKaily Cusumano (Monroe, Mich.) tossed dueling zeroes through the first five innings of the contest, but the Mavs got on the board in the sixth when Katiana Golino (Carteret, N.J.) launched a solo home run to put Mercy ahead 1-0. The Lions clawed in front to stay with a three-run frame in the bottom of the sixth. Senior
Tracey Balinskas (Edison, N.J.) tied the score with an RBI single, followed by back-to-back run-scoring singles from
Milan Botte (Reston, Va.) and
Brianna Dalton (Northampton, Pa.) as the maroon and white went up by two. In the top of the seventh, Mercy cut the deficit in half on a one-out homer by Kaylee Stevens (Simi Valley, Calif.), but Hawks settled down and retired the next two batters to secure the win.
Hawks went the distance and allowed two runs on five hits with eight strikeouts to pick up her league-leading seventh win of the season. Botte had a team-high two hits as Molloy only scratched five hits off of Cusumano, who went six innings with nine strikeouts in the loss.
Game Two: Mercy 3, Molloy 2The Mavericks got on the board in the second inning with all three runs off of Molloy starter
Jenna Turato (Garden City South, N.Y.). Golino hit an RBI double to left-center to bring home the first run of the contest for Mercy. Then senior Alyssa Gutierrez (Tucson, Ariz.) drove in two more runs with an RBI single down the right field line to get the Mavs ahead by three runs. The maroon and white got two runs back in the bottom of the fourth on RBI doubles by
Alexandra Russo (Coram, N.Y.) and
Sarah Rambo (Eagleville, Pa.) to bring Molloy within one run. The Lions came close to tying the game in the bottom of the fifth, as
Ashley Fedor (Monroe, Conn.) and
Olivia Banulski (Bristol, Conn.) were on second and third base with nobody out. Good pitching from starter Joelle Salisbury (Rotterdam, N.Y.) got the Mavs out of the jam and Molloy did not trouble Mercy after that.
Turato took the loss in a complete-game effort, surrendering five hits while striking out six batters. Banulski had two hits for the maroon and white while the team combined for just six hits against Salisbury and reliever Jackie Kielty (Middleboro, Mass.). Salisbury threw five innings of six-hit ball while allowing two runs, two walks and striking out three batters. Kielty recorded the save with a perfect two innings of relief and three strikeouts.
The Molloy College softball team will face Dominican College (N.Y.) on Monday (Mar. 28) in a doubleheader at Bob Klein Field beginning at 2:30 p.m.
