Softball Drops a Pair on Opening Day to Millersville, #9 Kutztown
CLERMONT, FL – On the opening day of the 2010 season, the
Merrimack softball team dropped a pair of hard-fought games to
Millersville University (5-0) and #9 Kutztown University (3-1) on
Sunday at Hancock Park.
“I felt like our team played tough in both games
today,” said head coach Elaine Schwager
after the season-opening twin bill. “We had a couple tough
innings and that ended up being the difference, but all in all
I'm happy with our effort and how the young players responded
in their first college games.”
In game one Merrimack went scoreless, but freshman Kelli Jo
Deardorff (Bedford, MA) [right] pitched four
innings of relief while allowing just three hits and one run
against eighteen batters.
On the offensive side, senior Casey Conetta
(Darien, CT) and juniors Kristen Lemay
(Shrewbury, MA) and Kara Melillo (North
Andover, MA) all singled for the Warriors, but runs for
Millersville in each of the first four innings built an
insurmountable lead.
Against #9 Kutztown, the Warriors' only let-up in the game
was a three-run, two-error bottom of the second. In the start,
freshman Courtney Parker
(Bellingham, MA) pitched three innings and allowed two
earned runs on five hits before being spelled by sophomore
Alex
Gallant (Salem, NH) who went three innings allowing
one hit and striking out two.
To get the Warriors on the scoreboard for the first time in 2010,
sophomore Monique Gosselin
(Lawrence, MA) smacked a solo home run in the top of the
sixth, but with only three hits in the game, Merrimack fell short,
3-1.
Merrimack returns to action on Monday afternoon with a doubleheader
against #16 Bloomsburg University at 3:30pm and 5:30pm at Hancock
Park.
