ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Macalester College softball split with Gustavus Adolphus today. The Scots won the first game 2-1 and lost 8-5 in the second.
In the early game, neither team could get on the scoreboard until the fifth inning. The Gusties took a 1-0 lead and the Scots continued to go scoreless through the bottom. But then in the the sixth, Macalester took a 2-1 advantage. Junior Julia Carpenter (Stevensville, Mich./Lakeshore) started the Scots off with a single to center and then got on second from a sacrifice bunt by sophomore
Kennedy Kechely (Rochester, Minn./Mayo). Carpenter then scored off a single to center field by sophomore
Kate Lawhead (Battle Ground, Wash./Prairie), tying the game 1-1.
Macalester scored what ended up being the winning run when sophomore Olive Tambou (San Francisco, Calif./Lowell) pinch ran for Lawhead and was advanced home from a single by first year
Emily Bergin (Houston, Texas/St. Thomas Episcopal School). In the seventh, with a runner on first for the Gusties, senior
Claire O'Connor (Piedmont, Calif./Piedmont)
made a game-saving catch in left field to deny Gustavus a two-run homer and won the game for the Scots 2-1.
The second game saw the Scots fall behind 1-0 as the Gusties scored in the top of the first. Gustavus continued to score two runs in the third and one in the fourth to take a 4-0 lead.
Macalester answered in the fourth with a run by Lawhead of an RBI single to right field by Bergin. Bergin ended the day 3-7 at bat and two RBIs.
The Scots then had a three-run inning in the bottom of the sixth to tie the game 4-4. Sophomore Audrey Meade (Cedar Hills, Utah/Pleasant Grove) hit a single and advanced to second from a single from Bergin. The Scots then immediately loaded the bases after Bergin's hit as
junior Kaela Jackson (Seattle, Wash./James A. Garfield) hit an infield single. Meade scored the Scots second run of the game when first year
Claire McHenry (Seattle, Wash./Seattle Academy of the Arts and Sciences) singled to center.
After pinch running for Bergin, first year Anna Leidner (New York, N.Y./Bronx Science) advanced home off a single from Carpenter to put the score at 4-3. Macalester tied it all up when Jackson scored from a RBI single by Kechely.
But the Gusties sealed the win with two runs in the seventh to beat Macalester 6-4.
Macalester returns to play on Wednesday, April 17, against the University of St.Thomas in St. Paul, Minn.
