CLERMONT, Fla. – The Haverford College softball team opened the 2017 season in Florida on Sunday with a pair of tough defeats against Catholic and Elizabethtown. The Fords dropped the first game by a 4-3 margin before a 12-0 defeat against Elizabethtown.
Haverford had built a 3-2 lead heading into the bottom of the sixth inning against Catholic but the Cardinals scored a run in the sixth and got a walk-off home run in the bottom of the seventh to win the Fords' season opener.
After an unearned run by Catholic in the bottom of the first, Haverford got that back in the third after leaving a pair of runners on base during the first two innings. Kaitlyn Guild walked to start the third inning before a two-out single from Ashley Sisto. A passed ball moved both of those runners into scoring position before Kendall Chambers came through with a two-run single into right field.
Catholic tied the game in the bottom half of that inning with a second unearned run, but a solo home run over the left field fence from Jessica Koshinski gave Haverford the lead back in the fifth inning. The Cardinals went on tie the game by manufacturing a run in the bottom of the sixth before a walk-off home run by Molly MacNeill with one out in the bottom of the seventh.
Haverford finished the game with a 9-8 advantage in hits despite the 4-3 final. However, the Fords did leave nine runners stranded on base and had two more runners caught stealing during the first game of the year. Chambers went the distance in the first game of the year for the Fords, allowing just two earned runs in her 6.1 innings of work.
In the second game of the day against Elizabethtown, the Fords could not stop the Blue Jays offense which scored during each of the first four innings. Elizabethtown scored seven runs in the first two innings to break the game open. The big blast in the first inning came from Elizabethtown's Kelsey Brown as she hit a three-run home run over the centerfield fence with two outs. In the second inning, the Blue Jays added two more earned runs and two unearned runs in the frame.
Offensively, Kaitlyn Guild went 2-for-2 in the second game to pace the offense. Jessica Koshinski, Kendall Chambers, and Temma Levis also had hits during the contest. However, Haverford was unable to push any runs across as Elizabethtown's Sara McKee threw a five-inning shutout during her team's win.
Softball will return to the field tomorrow morning where it will take on No. 17 Moravian at 8 a.m. and follow that up with a scheduled 10:30 a.m. start time against Oneonta State.