WINTER HAVEN, FL (March 19, 2023) - The 15th-ranked Tufts University softball team pulled away for a pair of victories at The Spring Games in Florida on Sunday. The Jumbos, now 4-0, defeated St. Catherine University 7-1 and the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire 11-2 in six innings.
Tufts got a huge first-year contribution in today's first game against the Wildcats. Kaitlyn Petrucci hit a three-run home run,
Lucy Brucker had a pinch-hit, two-run homer and
Emilie Doty earned the pitching victory.
Doty struck out seven batters in her 5.1 innings. She stranded two runners in both the first and second inning. Perucci gave her a 3-0 cushion when she homered to center field in the third scoring
Kat Yuzefpolsky and
Michelle Adelman, who both reached on singles after two were out.
The Jumbos left the bases loaded in the fourth, but Doty struck two in the top of the fifth and kept the score at 3-0. However, the Wildcats (4-6) would close within 3-1 on a run in the fifth. With one out, Jasmine Ziegler singled and Sam Aronson walked. Tufts went to junior
Sophia DiCocco in relief. After the Jumbos got a second out, Natalee singled through the right side scoring the run.
Tufts would score four times in the top of the sixth after two were out. Senior catcher
Emma Jacobson singled home a run, Brucker hit her opposite-field home run for two more and Perucci capped the frame with an infield hit rbi making it 7-1.
Doty got the win in her first collegiate start, allowing five hits and a run. The offense had 12 hits as Perucci finished 2 for 4 with a run and four rbis to lead the way. Yuzefpolsky had two hits and scored two runs.
Sarah Posey and Sigfrids had two hits for the Wildcats. Alyssa Monteira took the pitching loss, going three innings giving up four hits and three runs before departing the game after she was injured on the base paths.
Game two was close until Tufts made it lopsided with seven runs in the sixth inning. The Blugolds started the game with a first-inning home run by Megan Maruna. The Jumbos answered with two though, both on a single up the middle by Jacobson.
Josie Steinberg then added a sacrifice fly for a 3-1 advantage in the third.
Wisconsin Eau-Claire rallied with two outs in their half of the third to pull within 3-2. After a Jumbo error and an infield single, Madi Zarr's base hit pulled the Blugolds within one. However, Jumbo starting pitcher
Sky Johnson got a strikeout with two runners on to end the frame.
In the fifth,
Rachel Moore doubled to score Perucci after she had singled. Eau Claire had two on and one out in the bottom of the inning, but first year
Haley Leimbach nabbed a line drive at first base and tagged out the runner for a double play.
Tufts then put seven on the board in the sixth, including scoring six times before an out was even made. Jacobson hit an rbi single, Adelman walked with the bases loaded, Yuzefpolsky scored on a wild pitch and Perucci hit a two-run single. Then after a Steinberg double, Moore singled in a run before the Blugolds got an out. Jumbo
Bela Jimenez had a ground ball rbi to finish the flourish.
Johnson recorded the final three outs in the sixth and Tufts won by the run-rule. She went six innings giving up six hits and two runs (one earned) with eight K's and no walks. Perucci finished a great day going 3 for 4 with two runs and two rbis, while Jacobson was 2 for 4 with three rbis and Moore went 2 for 3 with two rbis and a run.
Zerr was the losing pitcher for the Blugolds (5-5), going five innings allowing seven hits and five runs.
Tufts, hitting .441 through two days in Florida, faces Wisconsin-Stevens Point and the College of Wooster tomorrow.Â
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--JUMBOS--
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