SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – A walk off single by Skidmore College softball outfielder
Lauren Fortunato with two outs in the seventh inning of game two led to an 8-7 win and a doubleheader sweep of Hamilton at Wagner Park on a warm, humid Wednesday afternoon. Skidmore won game one 9-1 after six innings.
The Thoroughbreds improve to 16-20, with the final stretch of the regular season looming. The Continentals fall to 10-22 on the season.
The Thoroughbreds, facing a four-run, 6-2 deficit midway through game two, got the rally started with a
Karly Fishkin sacrifice fly which scored
Mary Farrington with one out in the bottom of the fourth. After a Fortunato walk two batters later,
Kristina Foley ripped a single up the middle, scoring both
Heather Mak and
Lizette Roman-Johnston to cut Hamilton's lead to 6-5. Two innings later, Fishkin hit an RBI single up the middle, tying the game at six, before Skidmore took a 7-6 lead on a bases-loaded walk by Foley.
Hamilton responded in the top of the seventh, with consecutive hits and a sac fly by pinch hitter Sophia Cerreta tying the game at seven. With the threat of extra innings looming in the bottom of the frame, Fortunato ripped a two-out single to left field, scoring
Maddie Nelson as the team celebrated the wild win.
Skidmore began that second game with a pair of runs on an error at the plate and a bases loaded walk in the first inning. Hamilton responded with three runs in the second, a pair of RBI singles sandwiched around a sac fly, and took the 6-2 lead on a three-run homer by Jodi Weiss to dead center field, just scraping the top of the wall.
Skidmore tallied six hits and drew a season-best 13 walks in the victory. Foley went 1-2, walking twice and driving in three runs to lead the Thoroughbreds. Fishkin drove in two and scored a run. Fortunato and
Jill Strileckis also drove in a run on one hit.
Amanda Carilli struck out a batter and walked a pair in seven innings for her 11th victory of the season (11-11). Her counterpart, Desmen DePaulis (3-10), took the loss in relief, giving up the game winning hit in 0.2 innings pitched. Ursula Castiblanco started for Hamilton and no-hit the Thoroughbreds through 4.1 innings, eventually allowing six earned and four hits thru five innings pitched. Molly Leitner gave up a run and a hit, pitching the sixth inning.
Game one saw Skidmore end the game early behind a lively offense that scored nine runs on 10 hits and a solid pitching performance by Carilli.
The Thoroughbreds took a 4-0 lead after two innings.
Kristina Foley had an RBI single in the first and
Karly Fishkin smacked a two-out, two-run home run just over the left field fence for the 4-0 lead. It was Fishkin's first of the season.
Hamilton scored its lone run in the third when Helen Lin reached on an error and later scored on a Caitlin Berreitter single.
Skidmore added a run on an illegal pitch in the fifth and then scored five in the sixth to end the game. In the sixth, Roman-Johnston had an RBI double, followed by a Fishkin RBI single, then a deep two-run double off the bat of Fortunato for the 9-1 final.
Fishkin finished 3-4 with three runs, three RBI, and a stolen base. Fortunato was 2-3 with two runs, two RBI, and two stolen bases.
Heather Mak was 2-3 with a run. Carilli allowed one unearned run on five hits, with no walks and no strikeouts over six innings.
The hot-hitting Thoroughbreds face a crucial four-game stretch to end the regular season. Skidmore travels to Clarkson on Saturday for a Liberty League doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m., then wraps up the regular season at home with a pair of games against Union on Sunday, also at 1 p.m.
