Softball Opens 2017 Season With Win Over New Paltz, Setback To Tufts

CLERMONT, Fla. -- Wellesley College softball opened the 2017 season with a pair of games at the Legends Way Ballfields at the National Training Center, defeating New Paltz State, 7-5, in their season opener, before falling to local rival Tufts University in five innings, 12-2. The Blue end day one of the season with a 1-1 overall record.

Wellesley 7, New Paltz St. 5

Junior Julia Warner (Kenmore, Wash.) struck out ten batters over 6.1 innings to lead the Blue to a 7-5 victory over New Paltz St. in the opening game of the season. Warner was also 3-for-4 with a run scored for the Blue, who collected 12 hits as a team in the contest.

Classmate Amanda Manning (Chico, Calif.) and first year Autumn Brown (Marshfield, Mass.) were also 3-for-4 in the contest, with Manning picking-up a team high two RBIs and scoring a run out of the leadoff spot in the Wellesley lineup. Brown singled up the middle to record her first collegiate hit in the bottom of the second inning and later added an RBI groundout.

Sophomore Taylor LaFrance (New Windsor, N.Y) and Julia Dispignia (New Windsor, N.Y) each tallied two hits for the Hawks, while Dispignia also had two runs scored and an RBI. The New Paltz offense managed only four hits and no runs over the first five innings of play, before storming back with five runs in the final two innings.

Wellesley put four on the board in the bottom of the second, as Manning capped the rally with a two-RBI single up the middle to score first year Jessica Budz (Traverse City, Mich.) and sophomore Sydney Hopper (Newcastle, Wash.). The Blue tacked one more on in the bottom of the third courtesy of an RBI groundout from Brown.

New Paltz spoiled Warner's shutout bid when DiSpignia scored a run on a wild pitch in the sixth inning, but the Blue countered by scoring two runs on two hits in the bottom of the sixth to take a 7-1 lead into the seventh. New Paltz put a scare into the Blue in the seventh, willing four runs onto the scoreboard thanks to a passed ball, a stolen base, an RBI groundout and a wild pitch, but Wellesley closed out the win when Hopper got senior Nicole DeCosta (Stormville, N.Y.) to fly out to left after coming on in relief of Warner.

Tufts 12, Wellesley 2 (5 innings)

Tufts broke open a 1-1 game with six runs in the second inning and five runs in the third inning to take a 12-2 victory over the Blue in the second game of the day for both teams.

Manning added two more hits in the setback, finishing 2-of-3 with a run scored. Senior Anna Pisac had both Wellesley RBIs in game two, going 2-for-3 with a double after lacing a triple in the opener versus New Paltz. First year Sequoia Johnson (Westport, Mass.) and Budz each registered their first collegiate hits in the contest, while senior Ashtyn Coleman (Scottsdale, Ariz.) added the seventh Wellesley hit.

Tufts senior Cassie Ruscz (Wolcott, Conn.) was dialed in against the Blue, finishing 2-for-2 with a grand slam, six RBIs and two runs scored. Ruscz also reached base on a walk. Junior Raven Fournier (Springfield, Mass.) also smacked a double and had three RBIs for the Jumbos, who finished with 10 hits over four innings and scored in every inning but the fourth.

Pisac gave the Blue the lead in the top of the first, scoring Johnson on her double to right. However, the advantage was short lived when a hit-by-pitch in the bottom of the inning forced home the tying run. Tufts then opened the contest up in the second, as Ruscz, the NCAA leader in home runs in 2016 with 18, cleared the bases with her fourth of 2017. Tufts then scored five in the bottom of the third, thanks to back-to-back two-run doubles from Fournier and Ruscz and an RBI single from junior Sarah Finnigan (Weymouth, Mass.).

Pisac added an RBI single in the top of the fifth, but the game ended at the end of the Wellesley half of the inning with the Blue down by more than eight runs. Wellesley starter Madeline Bianchi (Lakeville, Minn.) dropped to 0-1 with the result, while Hopper pitched three more innings in relief.

The Blue return to action on Sunday with a doubleheader versus Maine-Farmington at the National Training Center. Game one will begin at 9:00 AM.