Box Score MEDFORD - Cassie Ruscz and Summer Horowitz both hit three-run home runs in game two's 11-2 victory as the Tufts softball team earned a double-header split with Babson College on Wednesday at Spicer Field. Babson scored seven times in the sixth inning to come from behind for a 9-6 win in the opener.
The Jumbos entered the game as the #3 team in the April 21 NCAA Regional rankings and the Beavers were at #10. The split leaves Tufts at 23-8 and Babson at 26-13.
Babson scored immediately in the first game as Josephine Mares doubled and scored on a single by Leslie Moore in the first. Tufts answered with a single run in the third. Christian Cain led off with a base hit and scored on a single by Carrie Copacino.
After Babson took the lead with an unearned run in the fourth, the Jumbos scored four times in the fifth inning to gain a 5-2 advantage. Christina Raso singled home Copacino and then scored from first on a double by Raina Galbiati. Ruscz hit her first home run of the day scoring Galbiati.
Babson retaliated by sending 11 batters to the plate in the sixth and scoring seven times to go ahead 9-5. Meaghan Merullo got it started with an rbi double and Maya Lacy followed with another run-scoring double. After the first out was made, Samantha Smith, Mares, Annie Quine, and Moore hit consecutive rbi singles.
Tufts got one back in the bottom of the seventh on Ruscz's third rbi of the game, but Babson's Ali Reilly finished off her 16th win with a pair of fly-ball outs. She allowed 12 hits and six runs in seven innings, but did not walk a batter. Babson finished with 11 hits including three by Mares, and two from Smith, Moore and Lacy.
Tufts out-hit Babson with 12, as Raso, Galbiati, Ruscz, Copacino, and Maggie Hoffman all had two. Galbiati took the pitching loss.
Ruscz's three-run homer in the first gave Tufts a 3-0 lead in the second game. Babson narrowed the margin to 3-2 with a pair of lead-off walks earned by Cartherine Pitts and Nicole Civello preceding an rbi single by Madison Dinaso and a run-scoring groundout by Mares. However, Horowitz's three-run job in the second helped give Tufts a 7-2 advantage. Ruscz also had an rbi single in the inning.
The Jumbos added four more in the fourth (two unearned) with Hoffman hitting a two-run double and Sarah Finnigan singling home a run and scoring on an error.
Tufts starter Erica County would allow just two hits and the two runs as the Jumbos won in five innings. The victory was her 16th of the season. The Jumbos had 13 hits in four innings, withSamantha Siciliano going 3 for 3 with two runs in the lead-off spot. Rusvz finished the day with seven rbis as she was 2 for 3 with four rbis and two runs in the nightcap. Hoffman and Cain also had two hits.
Babson's Dinaso took the pitching loss.
Tufts hosts Hamilton in non-divisional NESCAC play on Saturday starting at noon. These were the last regular-season games for Babson. They begin NEWMAC Tournament action against Wellesley on Friday.
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