CLERMONT, FL (March 18, 2024) – The Jumbo softball team remained unbeaten (6-0) in Florida with a pair of wins in competitive games against Millikin University and the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire on Monday.
Junior
Sky Johnson went the distance in the circle for a 2-1 victory against Millikin to start the day. Then the Jumbos came back from a 4-0 deficit to win 9-4 over UWEC later on.
Junior
Bela Jimenez was 3 for 5 with two walks and three runs batted in for the day. Senior
Sophia DiCocco pitched 4.1 innings of three-hit, no-run relief in the Wisconsin-Eau Claire game.
Tufts 2, Millikin 1
An hour-long lightning delay took place before the first game.
Johnson and the Big Blue's Kelsey Bruno kept it scoreless through three innings. In the top of the first with a runner on, Tufts turned a double-play on a sacrifice bunt with Jimenez firing across the diamond to catcher
Keriann Slayton who hustled to cover third and catch the runner attempting to advance.
In the top of the fourth, the Jumbos would turn a more traditional 6-4-3 double play for their second of the day and their fifth in the first five games.
The Jumbos would get their two runs in the bottom of the fourth.
Lauryn Horita and
Haley Leimbach walked. A wild pitch by Bruno then caromed off the backstop down the third-base side. Both Jumbos advanced two bases, with Horita scoring. Leimbach then scored when Jimenez launched a double to deep left field.
Millikin closed within 2-1 in the top of the sixth when Kendallyn Davison singled home a run. With the tying run on second base though, Jumbo shortstop
Josie Steinberg went into the hole to make a great play to end the inning.
Johnson improved to 2-0 allowing five hits and one run in seven innings.
Kaitlyn Perucci and Jimenez both had two hits.
Bruno was the losing pitcher for Millikin, allowing four hits and two runs in four innings. Davison had a hit and a walk for the Big Blue.
Tufts 9, Wisconsin-Eau Claire 4
The Jumbos continued to play great defense in the second game, with Perucci making a diving catch of a foul ball in right field with runner on third for final out in the bottom of the second.
However, the Blugolds would strike for four runs in the bottom of the third. An obstruction call against the Jumbos on a play at the plate loaded the bases and then Claire Beck hit a two-run single for UWEC. Molly Marquardt and Ella Henderson both hit rbi singles through the left side and the Jumbos trailed for the first time in Florida.
Not for long though, as Tufts rallied to score six times in the top of the fourth.
Rachel Moore set the tone by leading off with a triple, and she later scored on a single by Horita. Leimbach had an rbi single, Jimenez walked home a run,
Michelle Adelman had a sac fly rbi and a single by Perucci with a Blugold error on the play capped the frame with two more runs making it 6-4.
DiCocco would shut down UWEC to get the win (3-0) in relief. The Jumbos added three more in the sixth, one on an infield single by
Keila McCabe, another on the same play due to a UW-Eau Claire error and Tufts' last run of the day on a Jimenez single.
Perucci, Moore and McCabe had two hits for the Jumbos, while Moore, Steinberg and Horita scored twice. Jimenez knocked in two.
Jocelyn Hancock took the loss for the Blugolds, giving up just two hits but four walks and four runs in 3.1 innings. Marquardt, Henderson and Kenna Strunsee had two hits apiece.
Tomorrow
The Jumbos take on Buffalo State at 11:15 AM and local foe Endicott College at 1:30 PM on Tuesday before an off-day on Wednesday.
--JUMBOS--
