KEENE, NH — Keene State College scored 20 runs and banged out 20 hits in a 10-1 and 10-7 sweep of the Williams College softball team in non-conference softball action at Owl Athletic Complex on Wednesday afternoon.
The Ephs fall to 7-16 overall and will host Middlebury in the first game of a three-game weekend set Friday at 5 p.m. The Owls, who swept Williams for the first time since the series began back in 2001, improved to 13-9 overall.
The Ephs fell behind 3-0 after one inning in the opener and trailed 8-0 after three. The game was halted after 4 1/2 innings due to the eight-run mercy rule. Williams scored its run in the fourth when, with two outs and nobody on, Cedar Blazek lined a single. Amanda Correnti was then hit by a pitch, and Kaitlyn Dinet followed with an RBI-double.
The Ephs had only three hits in the loss with Jessie Herzer, Blazek and Dinek having one each. Williams starter Megan Casey took the loss, going four innings and allowing 11 hits and 10 runs, all earned, while wealking three and striking out four.
Junior Katie Bradford was 1 for 2 with a home run for Keene, while Sophomores Courtney Savoie and Laura Chandler each finished the game with two hits. Savoie picked up the win from the circle, allowing three hits and run run, earned, while not walking a batter and striking out four.
The Ephs fell behind 4-0 after one inning of the nightcap as Keene State scored four unearned runs off of starter Dinet, the big blow a two-run single by Kaiya Joyce. Williams cut that deficit in half with two runs in the top of the second. With two outs and no one on, Correnti singled. First year Erica Wu followed with her first collegiate home run, a two-run shot to left field.
However, Keene answered with three runs of its own in the bottom of the second innings to take a 7-2 lead.The Ephs then scored twice in the third to make it 7-4 when Allison Hart ripped a double to right and Merrilee Weston followed with a double of her own and eventually came around to score on a wild pitch.
The Ephs made it an 8-5 game on Weston's RBI-single in the fifth and had a chance to tie or go ahead in the sixth when an error on a Hart grounder allowed Wu to score and make it 8-6. But Owl reliever Samantha Pratt induced Weston to groundout and end the inning and the threat.
Williams had nine hits in the loss, with Wu going 2 for 3 with two RBI and Weston hitting 2 for 4 with two RBI. Dinet started and took the loss for Williams tossing two innings and allowing seven hits and five runs, all unearned. She did not walk or strikeout a batter. The Ephs made five errors in the game.
"We're still making errors that allow our opponents to extend their inning," Ephs head coach Kris Herman said. "We have not been able to come through in the clutch defensively. Offensively, at times, yes, but we still need to clean up our defensive effort."
