IMMACULATA, Pa. – The Immaculata University softball team took both ends of a doubleheader on Thursday afternoon against Haverford. The Fords (11-5) fell by a 3-2 score in the opening game while the Mighty Macs (10-8) secured an 11-8 victory in the second game.
Temma Levis pitched her sixth complete game in eight starts this season during the opening game. She allowed just six hits during her time in the circle while striking out five. However, the low-scoring opening battle went to the hosts as its starter allowed just one earned run over her seven innings of work.
The Fords did outhit the Mighty Macs by a 9-6 advantage, but seven runners left on base proved costly in the end. Early on Haverford had its chances as Nicole Swisher started the game with a leadoff double. Jessica Koshinski and Rachel Wolfson also had back-to-back singles in the second but both times those runners were stranded.
Levis retired the first eight batters she faced in succession, but a two-out walk and infield single during the third kept the inning alive for the game's first run. Haverford again had a chance in the fifth as the Fords loaded the bases only to make solid contact and line right into an inning ending double play.
Haverford tied the game in the sixth as Julia Blake singled with one out and came around to score on a two-out RBI single from Marybeth Stone. However, the Mighty Macs reclaimed the lead with a pair of two-out runs in the bottom half of that inning. Haverford put the first two runners in scoring position to start the seventh as Wolfson started the frame with a single while Johanna Batterton reached on an error. Alex Craig bunted those runners into scoring position with one out, but a one-out single from Swisher was the last of the offense for Haverford as it saw the game-tying run stranded at third.
During game two, Haverford's top five hitters in the lineup when a combined 9-for-19 at the plate and accounted for all eight of the runs scored. Nevertheless, that was not enough to overcome an 11-run third inning by the Mighty Macs. Swisher, Blake, Koshinski, and Stone each had two hits in the second game. Wolfson, Blake, and Koshinski also added two runs to their second game stats.
A two-run double in the top of the first inning off the bat of Koshinski and another RBI single from Stone made it 3-0 Haverford before Immaculata came to bat. Wolfson and Blake each had RBI hits to extend the lead to 5-0 before the Mighty Macs had their big frame in the bottom half. The Fords got an RBI from Alex Craig in the fifth inning and two more unearned runs in the top of the seventh to close the gap, but could come no closer in the 11-8 defeat.
Softball will return to Centennial Conference action this Saturday as the Fords travel to Gettysburg for a 1 p.m. doubleheader.