MEDFORD, MA (April 2, 2023) – Idle for a week since returning from a successful spring trip to Florida, the 10th-ranked Jumbo softball team picked up where they left off with a pair of 13-1, five-inning wins over Hamilton College for a NESCAC double-header sweep on Sunday at Spicer Field.
Tufts senior
Rachel Moore hit two home runs in the third inning of game one to highlight the offense, which had 28 hits combined in the two victories. Junior
Sophia DiCocco (5 IP, 7 H, 1 R) and sophomore
Sky Johnson (5 IP, 3 H, 1 R) earned the pitching victories for the Jumbos (16-1, 2-0 NESCAC).
Hamilton (12-10, 4-4 NESCAC) had started the day well, scoring a run in the top of the first in the opener. Katlynn McGivney slapped a single to the pitcher and Natalie Beebe doubled her home. However, the Jumbos would score three times in the bottom of the inning including a two-run double by
Haley Leimbach for a 3-1 advantage.
After adding a run when
Kat Yuzefpolsky singled and scored on a sac fly by
Michelle Adelman in the second, Tufts would score nine times in the third. Moore, batting second in the inning, hit a two-run home run putting Tufts ahead 6-1. A two-run single by Adelman and a two-run double by
Kaitlyn Perucci preceded another two-run dinger by Moore as Tufts went up 13-1.
The Jumbos finished game one with 12 hits as Adelman, Perucci, Steinberg, Moore and Leimbach had two each. Steinberg and Moore both scored three times, while Moore drove home the four runs and Adelman had three rbis.
McGivney and Beebe had two hits each for Hamilton. Emma Tansky took the pitching loss, giving up nine hits and seven runs (five earned) in two innings.
Tufts started game two with a double by
Bela Jimenez, an rbi triple from Adelman and a run-scoring double by Perucci for a 2-0 lead. The Jumbos would then have an even bigger inning than their nine-run third in the first game, scoring 10 times in the second. Perucci had a two-run single before Steinberg hit a three-run home run for her first of the year. Yuzefpolsky added a two-run single as Tufts would take a 12-0 advantage with nine hits in the inning.
Johnson was perfect through three innings for Tufts, but the Continentals would get three hits and a run in the fourth. McGivney had an infield single, went to third on an infield hit by Tansky and scored when Alessandra Priante singled through the left side.
Tufts' 26th and final run of the day came on a double to the left-center field gap by pinch-hitter
Meggie Murphy and a run-scoring single from
Keriann Slayton.
Perucci's three hits led Tufts' 16-hit attack in game two, while Jimenez, Adelman and Yuzefpolsky had two each. Perucci added three rbis while Yuzefpolsky had two runs and two rbis.
Beebe was the losing pitcher of the second game, lasting just one inning while surrendering 10 hits and 11 runs.
The Jumbos will host Brandeis University for a pair on Wednesday starting at 3 pm.
--JUMBOS--
