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Lizzy Iuppa was 3 for 5 with two runs and an rbi in Tufts' game one victory
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HARTFORD - The Tufts University and Trinity College softball teams split a NESCAC East Division doubleheader on Saturday. Both squads routed the other, with the Jumbos taking a 12-5 victory in the first game and Trinity earning a 12-2 win in a mercy-rule shortened second game.
The Jumbos can positively clinch the #1 seed in the East and the right to host the upcoming conference championship by winning their final NESCAC East game at home against Colby College on Sunday morning at 11 am. With the potential for Tufts, Bowdoin and Trinity to all finish 8-4 in the NESCAC East, and head-to-head results not resolving anything, the tie-breaking format is too complicated to jump to any conclusions about East Division seeds at this point.
Tufts took two out of three at Trinity over the weekend, including a dramatic 5-4 win in 13 innings on Friday. The Jumbos are now 21-16 overall and 8-3 in the division. Trinity, which salvaged the third game of the weekend's three-game series, moves to 20-11 overall and finishes the NESCAC East schedule with an 8-4 mark.
The first game was a wild affair in the early going. Tufts scored once in the first inning on a wild pitch. However, Trinity scored three times in the bottom of the first on a leadoff double by sophomore SS Caroline Blanchard (Norwich, CT), an rbi single by senior co-captain 2B Katherine Stoltenberg (Montgomery, NJ), two Tufts errors and a sacrifice fly.
Tufts added five runs in the second frame on an rbi single by junior CF Lizzy Iuppa (Paramus, NJ) and four Bantams' miscues in the field. Trinity senior co-captain Nicole Nardella (Beverly, MA) homered to open the bottom of the third frame and cut the deficit to 6-4, but Tufts answered with four runs in the top of the fourth. Sophomore 2B Emily Beinecke (Concord, MA) had a two-run double, and first year Sarah Hedtler (Wrentham, MA) came through with an rbi single in the inning.
Tufts rookie RHP Lauren Giglio (Niskayuna, NY) entered the game in the fourth inning and allowed just one hit and one walk with one strikeout following Nardella's blast. Beinecke capped off a four-rbi game with a two-run jack in the fifth inning to account for the 12-5 final.
Trinity senior RHP Kristen Anderson (West Haven, CT), after pitching all 13 innings yesterday and a pair of scoreless innings in the first game today, allowed five hits and two runs to earn the complete-game win in the circle in the nightcap.
Training 2-0, the Bantams jumped on Tufts for six runs in the bottom of the first inning highlighted by a three-run shot down the left field line by senior OF Melanie Orphanos (Norton, MA). The Bantams tacked on three more runs in each of the next two frames, as rookie Olivia Berry (Quincy, MA) delivered a two-out, two-run single in the second inning and classmate Abby Ostrom (Carlisle, MA) had an rbi single in the third inning.
Tufts scored its two runs in the first inning on a two-out, two-run double by Beinecke.
While the Jumbos close their regular season on Sunday against Colby, Trinity will finish theirs at Western Connecticut on Wednesday. The NESCAC Championship is next weekend (May 6-8) at the #1 seed in the East.
Game 1 Box Score
Game 2 Box Score
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Game release courtesy of Trinity College
