RALEIGH, N.C. – The Sweet Briar College softball team (7-7, 0-0 ODAC) wrapped up Spring Break action today with a victory against the New York University Violets (0-3, 0-0 UAA, 6-5, before falling to the No. 9 Christopher Newport University Captains (6-4, 0-0 C2C), 16-3.
Game One
Sweet Briar answered an early NYU homer with a four-run surge in the second inning to seize control and never gave the lead back in a 6–5 win.
After falling behind 2–0 in the first, the Vixens broke through in the bottom of the second when junior
Jordan Dorrier's (Buckingham, Va.) leadoff double set the table, and she came around to score on a bases-loaded walk drawn by senior
Kaylie Hudson (Lynchburg, Va.) to cut the deficit in half. Moments later, first-year
Sophia Peterson (Ashland, Va.) lined a single to left that turned into a three-run play, as Hudson scored. Sophomores
Emma Staton (Buckingham, Va.) and
Annie Purvis (Madison Heights, Va.) both crossed on an error in left field, pushing Sweet Briar in front 4–2.
NYU rallied to tie the game in the top of the fourth, but Sweet Briar responded immediately in the bottom half to reclaim the lead. Hudson singled to center and Peterson followed with another single, putting two on with two outs before sophomore
Abi Sawyers (Matthews, N.C.) drilled a double to center, bringing Hudson home for a 5–4 advantage. The Vixens continued to apply pressure in the fifth when sophomore
Madeline Schmidt (Fluvanna, Va.) was hit by a pitch and moved to third on a Purvis single, then junior
Ciara Nauful (Forest, Va.) dropped a perfectly placed infield single in front of the plate to score Schmidt and stretch the cushion to 6–4.
NYU tallied one more run in the seventh, but the Vixens still came away with the 6-5 victory.
In the circle, junior
Ambyre Taylor (Arrington, Va.) battled through four innings to earn the win, striking out five. Sawyers then slammed the door over the final three frames, yielding just two hits and one unearned run while striking out two and inducing seven groundouts to secure her first save. Together, they scattered 10 hits, worked around just one walk, and held NYU scoreless in four of the last five innings to preserve Sweet Briar's one-run victory.
Game Two
After being held scoreless over the first three innings of play, Sweet Briar broke through in the top of the fourth, turning traffic on the bases into a three-run inning. Junior
Ruby Hite (Clarksville, Va.) was hit by a pitch and moved up on Sawyers' single and a sophomore
Emily Cottingham (Chesterfield, Va.) groundout, then came home on a wild pitch to get the Vixens on the board. Sawyers advanced to third on the wild pitch and scored when senior
Ilka-Marie Kuleba (Endy, N.C.) reached on a pitching error and took second, and first-year
Pepper Maranto (Jetersville, Va.) followed with a run-scoring single to bring Kuleba in and cut the deficit to 13–3.
Three more runs by the Captains in the bottom of the fourth brought the score to 16-3 and a scoreless top of the fifth closed out the game.
Highlights
- The victory against NYU marks the 50th win since the return of the program as well as the 50th win in head coach Brian Hensley's Sweet Briar tenure.
- Hudson was one-for-one in game one with one hit, one RBI and two runs.
- Maranto recorded her first career strikeout in the bottom of the second inning of game two.
- The Vixens scored their first runs against Christopher Newport in program history this afternoon.
What's Next
The Vixens will open up Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) play on March 14th against Bridgewater.
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