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Box Score 2 MEDFORD – Tufts University junior Nicole Russo finished with an extraordinary 11 runs batted in for the day as the Jumbo softball team split a NESCAC East Division double-header with Bowdoin College on Saturday at Spicer Field.
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| Nicole Russo had a day for the ages with 11 rbis in two games on Saturday. |
Bowdoin's Katryna Dukehart hit a bases-clearing double in the top of the eighth giving the Polar Bears an eventual 11-8 victory in a wild game one. Russo then had seven of her rbis in Tufts' 12-2 victory in the nightcap.
In game one, the host Jumbos (6-2, 3-1 NESCAC) had taken a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth highlighted by a two-run triple from Russo. The score stayed 3-0 through five as Tufts starter Kristina Haghdan allowed just one hit in that duration.
However, visiting Bowdoin (1-3, 1-1 NESCAC) struck for four runs in the top of the sixth to take the lead against reliever Kristi Van Meter. Three of the four Polar Bear runs were unearned. Maddie Rouhana hit a two-run home run to tie the game and then Ruby Siltanen went back-to-back to put Bowdoin up 4-3.
Tufts charged back in front 6-4 by scoring three in the bottom of the sixth with the help of two Bowdoin errors. Kat Yuzefpolsky and Emma Della Volpe also had rbis. The inning ended however when Della Volpe was called out on an appeal that she did not touch home plate after hitting a home run.
Bowdoin continued its late-inning surge with four in the seventh for an 8-6 advantage. With the bases loaded, Rouhana hit a two-run single and a third run scored on a Tufts error during the play.
The Jumbos tied the game dramatically at 8-8 in the bottom of the seventh when Russo hit a one-out double scoring two. Tufts left the bases loaded though when Siltanen got a strikeout to send the game to extra innings.
After Dukehart put Bowdoin ahead by three, Siltanen worked through an early Polar Bear error in the bottom of the eighth to finish off the victory. She went eight innings giving up 12 hits and five earned runs with five K's and a walk for the win in the circle.
Rouhana (2 for 4, 4 rbis, run) and Dukehart (2 for 4, 3 rbis, run) led the Polar Bears to their first victory offensively. Kasey Cunningham scored three times. The Jumbos had 12 hits in the game, with Russo finishing 2 for 4 with four rbis and two runs. Josie Steinberg was 2 for 5 with two runs in the opener. Haghdan (6.2 IP, 4 H, 5 ER) took the pitching loss.
Russo got started on her mammoth second game by hitting a three-run home run in the bottom of the first. Tufts would score multiple runs in all four innings that they hit in game two. Freshman pitcher Sophia DiCocco was the beneficiary while doing a fine job herself with five innings allowing six hits and no runs.
In the second, Russo delivered Tufts' two runs with a base hit down the left-field line making it 6-0. She had her sixth and seventh rbis in the third and fourth frames with bases-loaded walks. The Jumbos scored three runs on no hits in the third as Bowdoin walked three and hit three batters. The wildness would continue in the fourth as the Jumbos scored three runs on a walk-HBP-walk succession.
Bowdoin also took advantage of some erratic pitching in their fifth to score twice on four walks and an rbi ground-out by Rouhana.
The Jumbos walked nine times and were hit by five pitches in the second game. Russo went 2 for 2 with the seven rbis and a run. Della Volpe finished 2 for 3 with three runs.
Lilly Armstrong had two of Bowdoin's six hits and scored a run in the nightcap. Abby Allen absorbed the pitching loss.
