HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College softball team was swept by Lebanon Valley in its home opener on Thursday evening. The Dutchmen took full advantage of Haverford's miscues in the field during a 7-4 win during the opening game. As the temperatures dropped for game two, the LVC bats seemingly heated up in an 11-3 run-rule victory.
The Fords jumped out to an early advantage in the opening game with a three-run home run from Rachel Wolfson in the bottom of the third inning. The inning started with Briana Quinn singling in her first collegiate at-bat while Ashley Sisto reached via an error. Wolfson drilled her first home run of the season, and fourth of her career, over the left field fence during the following at-bat.
Temma Levis got the start in the circle for the Fords and allowed just two earned run during her five-plus innings of work. However, the Dutchmen added a total of five unearned runs in what ultimately proved to be the difference. Haverford was still holding that 3-0 lead entering the fifth and Levis started the inning with a pair of groundouts. The LVC rally started innocently enough with a two-out walk. However, a dropped ball in the outfield scored the first run for the visitors while a single in the next at-bat pushed another unearned run across.
Two errors in the field and three walks issued to the Dutchmen during the top of the sixth inning paved the way for LVC to take the lead. Levis got one of those runs back for the Fords with an RBI single in the bottom of the seventh, but Haverford left four runners stranded on the base paths in the final two innings of the 7-4 defeat.
Lebanon Valley scored twice in each of the first two innings of the second game. The Fords were able to match in the first inning with RBI groundouts from Julia Blake and Jessica Koshinski, but the Dutchmen began to pull away in the fourth inning with a pair of two-run home runs. Alexa Windsor also homered for Lebanon Valley to start off the top of the sixth as part of that three-run frame that put the run-rule in effect.
Softball will begin its defense of last year's Centennial Conference Championship this weekend. Conference action gets underway on the Class of '95 Field as Dickinson comes to campus for a doubleheader that will get underway at 1 p.m.