HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College softball team completed a sweep of Cabrini College, 6-1 and 1-0, Thursday afternoon in the first-ever meeting between the two Main Line schools whose campuses are less than five miles apart.
Haverford (5-3) rode a big inning to victory in game one then won the nightcap with a late-inning run in the non-conference battle against the Cavaliers.
Cabrini (4-4) scored first in the opener, pushing a run across the plate in the top of the third for a 1-0 lead. The Fords answered back in the bottom of the inning manufacturing their first run of the game.
Beth Davis singled into the hole at shortstop with two outs then stole second. Cassandra Searls followed with a single to center field that brought Davis home to knot the game at 1-1.
A quiet fourth gave way to a raucous fifth, for both teams.
Cabrini loaded the bases against Searls, who started the game in the pitcher's circle for the Fords, in the top of the fifth but the senior hurler induced an easy two-out roller to Gabrielle Sapienza at first base to end the threat.
In the bottom of the inning it was Haverford's turn to make a lot of noise as the hosts took advantage of a two-out error and cashed in with five runs.
Candice Smith singled up the middle with two outs then moved to second on Davis' single to left-center field.
Searls hit a grounder to the left side but the throw that would have forced Smith out at third was wide and kept the inning alive.
Starting Cavalier pitcher Liz Zimmer walked Alison Crawford for the first Haverford run of the inning then Laura Iwanyk lashed a three-RBI double into the gap in right-center to clear the bases. Pinch-hitter Lauren Gill capped the inning with an RBI-single that found its way just inside the bag at first bringing Iwanyk home for a 6-1 lead.
Maggie Cronin took over in relief of Searls to start the Cabrini sixth and shut the door on the Cavs over the final two innings. Searls earned the win, striking out eight and allowing just the one earned run off of five hits.
Game two was a pitcher's duel between Haverford's Lisa Karmel and Cabrini's Marcelle Crist.
Crist lived much closer to the edge than did Karmel throughout the game but the scoreboard still read zeroes through five innings of action.
It wasn't for lack of trying, though, on the Fords' part. They had base runners in the first, second, fourth and fifth innings with the lead-off batter getting on in the second, fourth and fifth innings.
Twice, in the second and fourth, they left those lead-off hitters stranded at third but Crist worked her way out of each jam.
Meanwhile, Karmel was sailing. She put the Cavs down in order in both the first and second before allowing her first hit – a blooper that landed just onto the grass behind second base – in the third. An earlier error left runners at the corners for Cabrini after the hit but a foul fly caught by a sliding Davis just outside the left field foul line closed the book on the inning.
Early on, Karmel's best friend was third-baseman Marina Zambrotta who recorded five of Cabrini's first nine outs of the game. Karmel spread the help around over the fourth through sixth innings failing to allow the visiting Cavs a base-runner while the rest of the infield got into the action.
Finally, Haverford broke through in the sixth against Crist. Searls led off and found the same gap that Iwanyk found in right-center during game one and raced around to third, not beating the throw but beating the tag, for a lead-off triple — the fourth lead-off hit of the game for the Fords.
Crawford stepped into the batter's box next and lashed a double to center field that just missed clearing the yard by two feet. Cabrini's Ryan McDonough raced back to the fence just as the ball arrived but wasn't able to come up with a circus catch which sent Searls home and left Crawford standing up as she jogged into second with what would turn out to be the game-winning RBI.
Cabrini picked up their only other hit of the game off Karmel in the top of the seventh, but like the first hit it, too, barely made it into the grass in the air just clearing Zabrotta's glove behind third base.
With two outs, Karmel did it herself this time registering just her third strike-out of the game to close out the win for the Fords. Her mastery was such that only three balls made it out of the infield the entire game and she walked none.
Next up for the Fords will be another Main Line match-up as they travel up Lancaster Avenue for a doubleheader against Eastern University next Tuesday at 3 p.m. The games were originally scheduled for last Tuesday but were postponed because of field conditions at Eastern. Haverford has swept the Eagles the last two doubleheaders they've played, in 2007 and 2008.