CLERMONT, Fla. – Laura Quicker and Haley Congdon combined for a pair of wins as the Ithaca College softball team took both ends of a doubleheader against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) on Friday at the Legends Way Softball Complex in Clermont, Fla. With the wins, the Bombers close out their spring trip with an 8-4 overall mark, while the Engineers went 9-3.
Both teams were cruising along until the bottom of the fourth inning when the Bombers scored the first run of the game on the strength of three hits. Alex Wright boomed a double to left-center and would come around to score after Emily Bloom smacked an RBI-single through the left side to give Ithaca a 1-0 lead.
Ithaca added to its lead an inning later when Nikkey Skuraton blasted an RBI-triple to the left field fence that scored Gaby Litz all the way from first to make it 2-0 in favor of the Bombers.
The Engineers put two on in the top of the sixth, but Quicker would nail down the final out on strikes to preserve the lead before setting down the side in order in the top of the seventh to give Ithaca the two-run win.
Quicker (4-2) earned her fourth win of the season in the circle after limiting RPI to just three hits over seven innings of work.
Stephanie Caudle was shouldered with the loss, going 6.0 and allowing two runs on five hits. She struck out seven.
In Game 2, Ithaca got off to a quick start in the bottom of the first inning after two hits and two errors by the RPI infield allowed the Bombers to push three runs across the plate with Casey Gavin and Alex Wright each picking up an RBI in the frame.
The Engineers would put a run on the board in the top of the second with back-to-back base knocks including an RBI-triple by junior
Morgan Kollmeier to make it a two-run game, 3-1.
The Bombers pushed their lead to five runs after sending eight batters to the plate in the third. Skuraton led off for Ithaca and reached first after being hit by a pitch before giving way to three straight singles and a walk. Vanessa Brown singled to the left side followed by an RBI poke from Gavin and a two-run single from Wright to make it 6-1.
RPI had runners on base in the sixth and seventh innings, but would only come away with just one run as Ithaca won, 6-2.
Senior Mogan Ten Eyck and sophomore
Kacie Herity each went 1 for 3, while senior
Victoria Hepworth threw 4.0 innings of scoreless relief. She allowed just two hits and had three strikeouts.