CLERMONT, Fla. – The Haverford College softball team got its first win out of the way on Wednesday and rolled right to its first doubleheader sweep on Thursday with a 6-0 win against Bates and thrilling 8-6 victory against Heidelberg. Against Bates (0-1), the Fords (3-4) followed the same method as yesterday's win with a shutout from Kendall Chambers. The thrilling victory came as Haverford scored seven times in the bottom of the sixth against Heidelberg (6-4).
Kendall Chambers fired the third shutout of her career against Bates as the Fords' senior allowed just four hits while also striking out four batters. She has now gone 14 straight innings without allowing an earned run. Bates' best opportunities to score came in the third and sixth innings. The Bobcats had two runners in scoring position with one out in the third before Chambers got a strikeout and pop up to second base to escape that jam. In the sixth, the Fords' captain got out of a bases loaded jam with a grounder to third.
The Fords led for the entire contest as they scored two runs in the top of the first. Back-to-back walks to Rachel Wolfson and Julia Blake set up an RBI single from Kaitlyn Guild. Blake then came around to score on a passed ball. In third inning, Blake again wreaked havoc on the base paths as she doubled with one away and came around to score an on infield error as the Bobcats tried to double her up on a ground ball to short.
Haverford added two more runs in the top of the fifth as Ashley Sisto recorded a two-out two RBI single that scored Alex Craig and Blake. Craig started the inning with a single, while Blake was hit by pitch during her plate appearance. The final run also came off the bat of Sisto as her fly ball into left field was misplayed, allowing Guild to score in the seventh after her one-out walk.
In the second game of the day, the Fords found themselves down 5-1 with just six outs remaining. However, they would need just the one inning to do their damage. The Tomcats built their lead with each of their first five runs coming in the second inning. That inning came after Haverford took a 1-0 lead on an RBI single from Jessica Koshinski to score Blake, who worked a four-pitch walk with one out.
Haverford left five runners on base during the third through fifth innings; however, the Fords came through with the timely hit again and again in the sixth. Chambers started the inning with a hit by pitch, and a walk to Craig put two on with one out. Coming around to the top of the order, Wolfson, Blake, Koshinski, and Sisto all doubled during the next five at-bats. The only one to not double was Guild, but she advanced all the way to third during her at-bat thanks to a pair of Heidelberg errors. Temma Levis then capped the inning with a two-run single that made the score 8-5.
Heidelberg loaded the bases and did manage to push across one run in the top of the seventh, but Levis got a fly out to centerfield to preserve the victory and record the first win of her collegiate career. She came on in relief and allowed just the one earned run during her four innings of work while striking out one.
Softball will wrap up its week in Florida on Friday morning with a 9 a.m. game against Drew. The Fords are scheduled to play their first two home doubleheaders of the season when they return north next week.