MOUNT IDA SPLITS NON-CONFERENCE TWIN BILL

The Mount Ida College women's softball team split their home opener of the 2009 season this Tuesday against visiting non-conference Bay Path College dropping game one 3-1 in eight innings and winning 10-0 in game two in five innings.  The Mustangs improve to 3-9 overall with their first Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) home game approaching this Thursday against Emerson College.  The Wildcats leave Newton with a 3-6 record on the season. 

It was a pitching duel for most of game one with Mount Ida freshman hurler Kim Hurley (Fiskdale, MA/Tantasqua Regional) controlling the offensive attack of the visitors holding them to one run for the first seven innings.  The Mustangs struck first with two outs in the bottom of the first inning.  Freshman catcher Erica Belliveau (Tewksbury, MA/Tewksbury) fired up the bats hammering a double to center field.  Senior Kerri Kwasek (Framingham, MA/Framingham) followed with an RBI single driving in Belliveau for the 1-0 lead.

The visitors did not strike back until the top of the fifth inning on two costly errors by the Mustangs.  After a lead off strike out, Wildcat senior, Sarah Palmer (Topsham, ME/Mount Ararat), hit a line drive to right that fell in for a hit.  It eventually rolled through the five-hole of the right fielders legs good for another two bases putting Palmer on third on a two base error.  After another K by Hurley for the second out, Bay Path junior Sarah Gates (Crown Point, IN/Granby) hit a grounder to the shortstop that was mishandled.  Palmer took off from third and arrived safely at home tying the score at 1-1.

Neither squad could muster a run across the plate for the next two innings sending the game into extra frames.  (Extra innings in softball places a runner, before the start of the inning, on second base to speed up the process.)  Following another Bay Path strike out, Gates again reached on an error by the Mustangs advancing the runner on second, to third.  After a ground out to the pitcher, Wildcat junior Samantha Gunseth (Swanzey, NH/Monadnock Regional) crushed a triple to center emptying the bases and giving her team the commanding 3-1 lead. 

Mount Ida had one more hack at the victory in the bottom of the eighth inning but could not produce.  Bay Path eventually captured the game one 3-1 victory in a very close game that could have gone either way.  Hurley was outstanding for the Mustangs surrendering only three hits but could not get the run support she needed from her teammates.  Wildcat junior Kristal Cormier (Rochester, NH/Spaulding) took home the victory giving up 11 hits and a walk in eight innings of work.

It was a completely different story for the Mustangs in game two who came out firing immediately in the first inning with one run off three hits.  A lead off single by sophomore Becky Tisbert (Cambridge, VT/Lamoille Union) started up the attack, eventually making it to second base on a wild pitch.  After reaching third on a passed ball, Tisbert was driven in by Kwasek on a laser up the middle making it 1-0 Mustangs.

No answer from Bay Path in the second inning gave Mount Ida another chance to capitalize which they did on a seven run, three hit second frame that featured five errors by the Wildcats.  A lead off single by freshman Erin Dufficy (Shelton, CT/Shelton), followed by a smoked triple by Tracy Koukol (North Attleboro, MA/North Attleboro) who ended up scoring on a throwing error, tacked on two more scores up 3-0.  Five errors through the rest of the inning plated five more runs for the Mustangs now leading 8-0. 

It was all but over at this point with Mount Ida adding two more runs in the bottom of the fourth on a double steal scoring Lorenco and an RBI single by Koukol.  The Mustangs took the back end of the day's double dip winning 10-0 in four and a half innings with the mercy run going into effect.

Kwasek took over the pitching duties in game two in four innings of work only giving up three hits and chalking up five strike outs.  Wildcat junior Jess Nizinski (West Springfield, MA/Holyoke Catholic) was tattooed for nine hits on 10 runs and two wild pitches.  To her defense, she only surrendered four earned runs with no help from her teammates in the field or at the plate. 

Kwasek also had a big day at the plate going 5-7 with two RBI's while Dufficy added four hits going 4-7 with an RBI in two games.  Belliveau contributed with three hits in game one and a run in game two. 

The Mustangs will host their first GNAC home doubleheader this Thursday against Emerson College with game one coming at 3:00 p.m.