Fort Myers, FL – The New Paltz softball team returned to the field on Thursday and dropped two games, falling to Western New England College (WNEC) 6-1 and Salem State 2-0. The Hawks fall to 5-3 on the season and will face St. Lawrence at 9am and Plymouth State at 1pm on Friday March 20 at the Cape Coral Complex.
In the first game, Samantha Barra went 2-for-3 from the plate as she registered two of the four hits for New Paltz. Melyssa Cilmi and Rose Dovi tallied the other two hits as Cilmi had a double and Dovi hit a triple. Sophomore Courtney Costello took the loss on the mound, throwing five innings as she allowed five runs and three walks with one strikeout.
WNEC looked to score in the second inning when they had bases loaded and one out. The next batter grounded out to Costello who made the play to Dale Cornelius to get the runner out at home. With two outs and the bases still loaded, the next hitter grounded out to Elizabeth May who made the throw to Jordan Paley at first for the third out.
WNEC tallied two runs on three hits in the third inning. With two outs and bases loaded a pitch hit the batter for the first run of the game and the next run was scored on an RBI single to left field. WNEC extended their lead with an additional run in the fourth inning on an RBI single.
The Hawks tallied their first run of the game the bottom of the fourth. Justine Scutaro was walked and advanced to second on a single by Barra. Both runners moved a base on a sacrifice bunt by Cornelius. With two outs and runners still on second and third, Dovi reached on an error to score Scutaro for the 3-1 score.
WNEC used a two out rally to score two runs on four hits in the fifth inning and completed the scoring with a final run in the sixth inning for a 6-1 final.
In game two, Dovi led the Hawks as she registered two of the seven hits. Single hits came from Jenna Curcio, Paley, Scutaro, May and Cilmi. First year Alyssa Oliva, took the loss on the mound as she allowed both runs on six hits with no walks and five strikeouts in four and two thirds innings pitched.
The Vikings scored both runs in the bottom of the fifth inning with two outs. With a runner on second, Salem State hit an RBI single to left field and the batter advanced to second. The next hitter hit an RBI single up the middle for the second run.
In the first inning, Salem State had runners on second and third with one out when they hit a fly ball to center field, which should have been a sacrifice fly but the runner on third left early as the Hawks got two outs on the play to end the inning. The first out of the inning came on a pickoff at first base by catcher Curcio.
New Paltz had runners on first and second with one out when the Vikings turned a double play to keep the game scoreless.
In the third inning, Salem had a runner on second with one out. The Vikings hit a single to left field but the runner on second was out at third on the throw from leftfielder Tori Kyle.
The Hawks appeared to have a rally going with two outs in the fourth when Curcio hit a single and Paley followed with a double down the right field line but the Vikings got the next batter on a line drive to the third basemen.
In the top of the sixth the Hawks appeared to again have a rally with two outs. With a runner on first, Curcio reached on an error to advance Erin Fitzpatrick to second. Both runners advanced a base on a passed ball. Paley stepped to the plate and hit a ball to left center that was tracked down by the Vikings for the third out.
