WINTER HAVEN, Fla. – The Haverford College softball team wrapped up its week in Florida with a 7-3 overall record after Friday's results. On their final playing day in the Sunshine State, the Fords downed Carnegie Mellon by a 12-5 score before falling to Wooster by a 5-3 final. Those seven wins in Florida are tied for the second most in school history down south and trail only last year's team which went 8-2 out of the gates.
Haverford pounded out 11 hits in Friday's first game against Carnegie Mellon. The Fords got on the board quickly as just two batters into the game Julia Blake had a double while Nicole Swisher blasted the first home run of her career over the right field fence. Blake was back up in the second and homered herself to put the Fords up 3-0. Rachel Wolfson came around to score that same inning after singling to make it 4-1. Marybeth Stone drove in Blake during the fourth inning to make the score 5-2, but most of the offense was still to come for the Fords.
An Emily Reinstadtler single, double from Blake, and walk to Swisher loaded the bases to set the stage for the seven-run fifth. Stone delivered two more RBI in that frame while a hit by pitch from Emma Souter and walk issued to Michelle Kaplan later forced in runs. Batting around in the inning, Reinstadtler had a two RBI hit of her own in her second at-bat of the frame, while the final run came home on an error to make the score 12-2 after five and a half innings.
A home run in Carnegie Mellon's half of the sixth prevented the game from being shortened in a run-rule victory, but CMU never truly threatened the Fords' lead over the remaining frames. Temma Levis got the start in the circle and allowed just one earned run over three innings before giving way to the bullpen. Briana Quinn notched her third win of the trip as she did not allow an earned run over her three innings before Maya Casey put a wrap on the game with her one inning of work. Blake and Stone paced Haverford's offense with three hits each. Blake also scored four runs against CMU, while Stone drove in three runs.
With a cruel twist of fate, the big inning was Haverford's undoing in the second game against Wooster. Haverford was up 2-1 after just three innings as Souter doubled in the second inning and came around to score on a wild pitch. One inning later, Stone doubled into left field before Levis drove in that go-ahead run.
However, Wooster's offense could not be silenced in the fifth as it used five hits – just one of which went for a extra bases – to score four runs and take a 5-2 advantage heading to the bottom of the fifth. Haverford put two on in the fifth before those runners were stranded. One-out singles from Ashley Sisto and Wolfson also attempted to jump-start a Haverford rally in the seventh before Wooster escaped that jam with just one run allowed.
Haverford will fly back north on Saturday as the Fords prepare for the rest of the 2019 season. When the team returns to campus, it will look forward to the home opener which will be on Tuesday, March 19 against Immaculata. The Fords will also be home against Neumann on Thursday this coming week. First pitch in both of those scheduled doubleheaders is set for 3 p.m. on the Class of '95 Field.