ST. DAVIDS, Pa. – The Haverford College softball team broke through offensively with 20 runs and 23 hits during a doubleheader sweep at Eastern. The Fords won the opening game by a run-rule 9-0 score after five innings. Haverford then came back with even more offense during an 11-4 win and subsequent sweep of the road twin bill.
When the hits came, they came in bunches for the Fords on Thursday. Haverford did jump out to an early 2-0 lead in game one, but it was a seven-run fifth inning that provided more than enough insurance. The Fords got the quick jump with a pair of RBI doubles from freshmen Rachel Wolfson and Kaitlyn Guild.
Nonetheless, the big damage came in the fifth inning when Haverford scored seven times with eight hits. The eight hits all came in the first nine at-bats of the inning. Six of those went to the wall for doubles. Every person who stepped to the plate for the Fords in the opening game recorded a hit. Jessica Koshinski, Emily Gorman, and Guild each finished with two RBI.
In the first of two complete game outings from the Haverford pitching staff, Emily Winesett allowed just two hits in her five innings of work to record her third victory of the season.
In game two, the Fords kept adding on with runs in five of the seven innings. However, it was eight runs over their final two at-bats that blew the game open.
The Fords got on the board first when Kristin Tatum hit the first of her three home runs in the second game. Those three home runs set a new program record. Seven different times in program history, twice of which have been Tatum, a Haverford player has hit two home runs in a single game. The Fords added two more runs an inning later on RBI hits from Kendall Chambers and Koshinski. However, the host Eagles answered that three-run deficit with three unearned runs in the bottom half of the third.
Haverford retook the lead on a sacrifice fly from Wolfson in the fourth inning, but another unearned run came across in the bottom of the fourth to tie the game at four-all. Adding to its long ball total in grabbing the early lead, Haverford's biggest blasts were yet to come.
Tatum knocked her second home run over the fence to lead off a three-run sixth inning for the Fords. Wolfson then homered for the first time in her career, a two-run shot, to set the score at 7-4. Haverford's dynamic duo was back at it again in the seventh as both players replicated their home run feats. Tatum's two-run home run in Haverford's last at-bat gave her four RBI for the game. Wolfson drilled a three-run home run over the fence as she finished with a six RBI and three runs scored in the contest.
In addition to helping her cause with an RBI, Chambers threw a complete game six-hitter to record the victory. The Fords' junior struck out three on the evening and did not allow an earned run in just her third career complete game.
Softball will be back in action this Sunday as it travels to Lebanon Valley for a doubleheader that is scheduled to get underway at 1 p.m.