HARTFORD, CT (April 18, 2025) -
Kaitlyn Perucci drove home four runs in Game 1 and
Lauryn Horita finished with five rbis in Game 2 as the Tufts University softball team scored a pair of decisive NESCAC wins at Trinity College today. Scores from the double-header were 9-0 in five innings and 9-3.
Now with 12 victories in their last 14 games, Tufts is 16-12 overall and 12-2 in the conference. Trinity fell to 8-17 and 2-10 in NESCAC.
Game 1 - Tufts 9, Trinity 0 (5 inn.)
The Jumbos struck for seven runs in the top of the fifth to turn what had been a close game into a run-rule win.
Trinity starting pitcher Zofia Sargent retired the first eight Jumbos until Kat Cawabe lined the first pitch she saw into left for a single with two outs in the third inning. After
Bela Jimenez reached by error and both runners moved up on a wild pitch,
Kaitlyn Perucci roped a two-run single to center for a 2-0 Tufts lead.
Meanwhile, Jumbo starter
Sophia DiCocco went through the first three innings facing the minimum amount of batters. The defense had turned a 6-4-3 double play after Abigail Alper walked in the first inning. Trinity would get its only hit when Taylor Mikolajczak singled up the middle leading off the fourth. She would advance to third, but DiCocco got the third out on a pop to shortstop.
Trinity's Sargent took the game to the fifth inning still at 2-0, but Tufts would send 12 batters to the plate and break it open.
Lindsay Neumann started it with a single to center, then Kawabe doubled her to third. Jimenez's single to center scored both making it 4-0. Perucci followed with a two-run home run to left - giving her four rbis on the day - and suddenly the Jumbos led 6-0. After the first two outs were recorded, Tufts scored three more times as
Lauryn Horita doubled,
Haley Leimbach hit an rbi single,
Madi Sewell doubled home a run and then Kawabe had an rbi base hit making it 9-0.
DiCocco finished off the five-inning win by striking out the last two batters she faced. She struck out five total and walked one while recording the pitching victory.
Kawabe was 3 for 3 with two runs and an rbi for Tufts, while Perucci finished 2 for 3 with the four rbis and a run. Leimbach had two hits, while Jimenez scored twice and drove in two.
Sargent's pitching line was five innings allowing 11 hits and eight earned runs to take the loss.
Game 2 - Tufts 9, Trinity 3
The Jumbos built a 7-0 lead, starting with two runs in the second inning. Horita walked, was singled to second by Leimbach and then scored on a Trinity error with two outs.
Cat Kawabe - with her fourth consecutive hit of the day - followed with an rbi single that scored Leimbach.
Horita bombed one over the center field fence in the third inning which scored
Keriann Slayton, who had walked, for a 4-0 Jumbo margin.
Trinity had led off the first, second and third innings with hits, but Tufts starting pitcher
Lacy Chilek was able to strand the runners to keep the Bantams off the scoreboard early.
Tufts then scored three times in the fourth frame after Cawabe led off with a walk. Perucci had her fifth rbi of the day when she doubled home a run. Horita then hit a two-run double scoring Perucci and
Heaven Oliva (walk) for a 7-0 Tufts advantage.
The Bantams again led off an inning with a hit, and this time were able to capitalize. Emily Goddard's double to start the fourth inning was followed by two Chilek strikeouts. However, Trinity's Makenna True the doubled home Goddard for the first Bantam run. That was followed by back-to-back singles by Mikayla O'Brien and Isabella Calagna (rbi) making the score 7-2. Tufts went to the bullpen for
Fallon O'Connor and she got the final out and stranded two on base to end the inning.
Trinity would get another in the fifth as Alper led off with a single and went to third on a stolen base and error. She scored on Goddard's base hit and it was 7-3.
The Jumbos capped their scoring with two in the sixth - on rbis by Slayton and Horita's fifth of the game on a single - for the 9-3 final.
Horita finished Game 2 at 3 for 3 with the five rbis and two runs. Perucci and Slayton also scored twice, while Leimbach had two hits. O'Connor, after entering in the fourth, gets the win in relief after allowing four hits and one run in her 3.1 innings.
Trinity ended up out-hitting Tufts in Game 2 by a 12-11 count. Goddard had three hits, while Alper, Calagna, Mikolajczak and True had two each. Annie Konieczka absorbed the pitching loss (4 IP, 7 H, 5 ER).
Next
The Jumbos return home for the first time in two weeks to host Colby College in a conference double-header tomorrow with an early 11 AM start.
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