CHESTER, Pa. – The Haverford College softball team ran into a pair of tough pitching matchups on the road Thursday evening. Playing against Widener (21-3), the Fords (13-15) fell victim to 5-0 and 3-2 scores. Widener had been receiving votes in the NFCA Top 25 up until this week's release.
One big inning for the Pride was the difference in the opening game. The two sides went scoreless through two and a half innings. Widener broke the deadlock with four runs in the bottom of the third. In that inning, it was three extra-base hits, including a leadoff home run, that paced the offense. The Pride added their final run in the bottom of the sixth for the 5-0 final.
Widener's Alexis Schengrund picked up the win as she scattered four hits and struck out four in five innings of work. She gave way to Katie Rabuck who completed the shutout. Haverford did have chances to score throughout the game. The Fords' best chance came in the fifth inning when singles from Jessica Koshinski and Kendall Chambers put runners on the corners with two down before Widener stranded both of those Fords in scoring position.
Haverford got the early jump in game two as Koshinski lifted a sacrifice fly to right field that scored the game's first run. The Fords loaded the bases just prior to that as Julia Blake singled, Kristin Tatum worked a walk, and Kaitlyn Guild singled into left field. Koshinski's sacrifice scored Blake before a ground out prevented Haverford from expanding on that lead.
The Pride took the lead in the second inning when four of the first five batters reached base. Chambers came on to get the Fords out of a jam as she inherited a second and third with one out situation but induced a pair of outs on the infield. Coming on in relief during both games, Chambers allowed just four hits and one earned run in her 8.2 innings of combined relief work.
Widener pushed across an insurance run in bottom of the sixth with a sacrifice fly. That run loomed large as the Fords got a leadoff walk from Miwa Wenzel and one-out single from Emily Gorman to put the potential game-tying runs on base. A sacrifice fly from Alex Craig brought the Fords within a run, but a groundout left the game-tying run stranded on the base paths.
After an extended road trip, softball will return home to the Class of '95 Field for eight games (four doubleheaders) in an eight day span. The homestand starts this Saturday at 1 p.m. against Franklin & Marshall.