Box Score MEDFORD - In their debut on the newly refurbished Spicer Field, the Tufts Softball team swept a pair of NESCAC East Division games against Bowdoin College on Saturday. The Jumbos won a crisply-played opener 1-0 and then broke open the nightcap 10-0 in six innings.
Senior pitcher Allyson Fournier struck out 20 in game one while firing a one-hit shutout. Sophomore 1B Cassie Ruscz went 3 for 4 with five rbis and a run in the second game. Tufts remained undefeated at 18-0 and 2-0 in the division.
Bowdoin sophomore Emily Griffin pitched well while taking the loss in game one for Bowdoin. Sophomore SS Marisa O'Toole had three hits on the day for the Polar Bears, who drop to 15-8 and 3-2.
Twenty of the 21 outs Tufts recorded in the first game were Fournier strike outs. She hit the first batter she faced - Bowdoin senior 3B Adriane Krul - but then struck out the next nine. O'Toole led off the fourth with a sharp single through the left side and then stole second. Fournier would strand her and strike out 11 of the final 12 Bowdoin batters.
For the season, Fournier now has a 0.11 earned run average with one earned run allowed and 135 strikeouts in 61 innings.
Griffin was solid in the circle for Bowdoin, giving up just one run in the fourth. Ruscz led off with double to left-center and scored on a pair of ground outs. Griffin allowed six hits and two walks.
Ruscz was the only player in the game with multiple hits, finishing 2 for 3.
Game two was 0-0 through three before Tufts scored twice in the fourth, twice in the fifth and six times in the sixth. Ruscz hit a two-run hone run in the fourth, a two-run single in the fifth and had an rbi base hit in the sixth.
Senior 3B Bri Keenan doubled home two runs and scored in the sixth for Tufts. Sophomore LF Carrie Copacino and senior 2B Gracie Marshall both had rbis and runs scored in the Tufts sixth as they sent 12 batters to the plate against Bowdoni's Alana Luzzio.
Junior Erica County threw a six-inning shutout for Tufts, allowing six hits and a walk to improve to 8-0. She twice got into trouble with two outs. In the third inning with the score 0-0, Bowdoin singles by O'Toole and junior pitcher Julia Geaumont helped load the bases. County got a fly ball to end the inning. With a single by Krul and a Tufts error, the Polar Bears then had runners on second and third down 4-0 in the fifth. County again kept them scoreless with a ground ball out.
Keenan finished game two 2 for 3 with three runs and two rbis for the Jumbos. O'Toole was 2 for 3 for Bowdoin.
Both teams play tomorrow. Tufts hosts Bates for a NESCAC East pair at Spicer. The Polar Bears travel to Trinity where they will play three games starting at 10 am.
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