MEDFORD, MA (March 28, 2025) -- The Tufts University softball squad opened up New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) action Friday afternoon with a pair of league wins over visiting Bowdoin College, taking game one 8-3 before besting the Polar Bears 10-2 on Spicer Field.
Game 1: Tufts 8, Bowdoin 3
Junior
Lauryn Horita went 4-for-4 with a homer and three RBI to help lead the Jumbos to the game one win.
Tufts took a 2-0 lead in the second inning, as first-year
Cat Kawabe singled in two runs to play both
Haley Leimbach and Horita. Bowdoin battled back with two runs in the third inning, but Horita answered with a two-run shot to give the Jumbos their two-run lead at 4-2. It was Horita's third homer of the season.
The Jumbos' lead would swell up to four in the fourth inning, as senior
Keriann Slayton doubled to right center to bring around both
Kaitlyn Perucci and
Bela Jimenez to make it 6-2. In the sixth inning, Tufts pushed across two more runs as
Heaven Oliva singled in a run while Horita also delivered a RBI single to make it 8-2.
That would be plenty of offense, as the Jumbos got a complete-game win from graduate student
Sophia DiCocco, who allowed three runs on six hits. Slayton finished 2-for-4 with two RBI, while Perucci went 1-for-4 with two runs scored.
Game 2: Tufts 10, Bowdoin 2 (6 )
The Jumbos rattled off 14 hits in game two, and the combined pitching from
Fallon O'Connor and Lacy Chilik was strong as the Jumbos earned the run-rule victory.
Tufts got on the board quickly in the first, as Oliva singled in Horita with two outs to make it 1-0. The Jumbos would plate three in the second inning, as Jimenez singled in Kawabe, later coming around to score on a bases-loaded walk by Oliva. A batter later, Perucci singled to left field to bring around Horita to make it 4-0.
Bowdoin scored one in the top of the third, and pulled even closer in the top of the fourth with another run to make it 4-2. Tufts would respond immediately in the bottom half as Oliva connected on her sixth homer of the season, followed by a RBI single from Leimbach later in the frame to make it 6-2.
The Jumbos continued to add to their tally in the fifth with a two-run double by Slayton, and a RBI single in the sixth to score Leimbach gave the Jumbos the eight-run lead to finish the contest.
Jimenez was 3-for-4 with two RBI and two runs scored, while Perucci went 3-for-3 with two doubles and two runs. Oliva was 2-for-3 with three RBI, and Leimbach posted a 2-for-4 game two.
O'Connor went four innings for Tufts in the circle, allowing one earned run and five hits, while Chilik came in to allow just two hits and a walk, fanning three in her two innings.
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Tufts will have Saturday off before hosting Amherst College Sunday at noon for a NESCAC doubleheader on Spicer Field.
--JUMBOS--
