Owls, Falcons Split in Wild MASCAC Doubleheader

WESTFIELD, Mass. -- Westfield State weathered a pair of grand slam home runs on the afternoon by Fitchburg's Molly Grass, to earn a MASCAC softball doubleheader split, as the Owls rallied from a seven-run deficit to win game 1 by a 14-13 score in 10 innings, before falling 12-8 in the night cap.

In the opener, Westfield (4-14, 1-1 MASCAC) trailed 12-5 entering the sixth inning, but the Owls pushed across four runs in the bottom half of the frame, getting two aboard on hit batsmen and then Lindsay Cordopatri rapped a double in the left field gap to score two runs.

In the seventh, Westfield's Jess Chenard led off with a single, and the Owls strung together base hits from Alyssa Clark, and Christina Ciampa before another double from Cordopatri cleared the bases and tied the game.

Fitchburg (8-9, 1-1 MASCAC) pushed across one run as the teams went to the international tiebreaker in the 10^th inning, with pinch runner Madison Mantegani scoring on a bunt play gone bad as the Owls threw the ball away to allow the run to score.   Winning pitcher Stephanie Scoville worked out of the jam in the inning, with one runner running into an out at home plate to keep the game in reach.

In the bottom half of the inning, Westfield's Christina Ciampa started the inning on second base, westfield put runners at 1^st and second on a walk by Cordopatri, and then Jordyn Lummus looked to sacrifice the runners over, but beat out a perfect bunt down the first base line, and a heads-up Ciampa wheeled around third and dove into home plate ahead of the throw to tie the game at 13 all, with Cordopatri advancing to third.

Westfield's Colleen Hughes delivered a sacrifice fly to right center and Cordpatri scored the winning run easily.

Scoville worked four innings of 1-run relief to get the win.  Cordopatri finished 4-5 with five runs batted in and two runs scored.

Fitchburg pounded out four home runs in the game with the wind blowing out, including a solo shot and a grand slam from Grass, a solo blast from Audrey Johnson, and a line shot to centerfield from #9 hitter Dana Cisowski to help stake the Falcons to the big early lead.

Sarah Cahill (L, 5-4) took the loss.

The offenses surrendered nothing in game 2, as Cordopatri hit a 2-run homer in the third inningto stake the Owls to an early 2-0 lead, but Fitchburg answered with 10 runs in the top of the fourth, including Grass' second grand slam and third home run of the day.  Audrey Johnson added a 2-run bomb later in the inning.

Westfield grittily pushed three runs acorss in the fifth, on doubles from Lummus and Hughes and a two run homer to left from shortstop Alyssa Clark.  The Owls added two in the sixth on a double from Metzger, a single from Ciampa, and a triple into the left field corner from Cordopatri, that trimmed the lead to 12-7.

Clark added her second home run of the day to lead off the bottom of the seventh to cut the lead to 12-8m but Cahill closed the door by retiring the final three hitters to get the win and improve to 6-4 on the season.

Both Cahill and Westfield's Scoville did yeoman's work on the mound, with both throwing deep into both games of the doubleheader.

Cisowski finished with three hits for Fitchburg State, while Colleen Hughes went 4-4 at the dish in game 2 for the Owls.