The Quinnipiac softball team opened its Northeast Conference play with a doubleheader against Monmouth. A commanding 8-1 victory was immediately followed by a 3-0 loss for the Bobcats. Alex Alba increased her hitting streak to 10 games with two hits in game one and a double in the second game.
Alba’s batting average now stands at .345 after going 3 for 6 in the two games. Along with her double she tacked on a sacrifice fly and one RBI to her stat line.
Game one was an excellent hitting display for Quinnipiac. The team hit .375 and went 9 for 24 at the plate. Sophomore Nikki Barba went 3-for-4 with two doubles, runs, and RBI. Another sophomore having a strong season, Jordan Paolucci, batted 2 for 3, scored one run, and hit a two-run home run to contribute to her three RBI.
Freshman Sydney Robey pitched a full seven innings for her fourth win to get herself back to a .500 record of 4-4. She threw an efficient game giving up only one run, while tallying six strikeouts and hits, along with five walks. Keeping the ball low, every opposing hit was a single, and the Hawks left nine runners stranded on base. Two back-to-back double plays in the fifth and sixth helped contribute.
The Bobcats did an excellent job in the first game of capitalizing on their hits. The team scored four runs in the first inning, six total in the first two frames. Freshman Courtney Solt recorded the first hit for her team with a single. An Alba single and stolen base later advanced them into scoring position. Barba then knocked a shot all the way to the fence that sent the other two Bobcats home. The following Paolucci home run would round out the scoring in the first inning.
In the second with Brittney Cyr and Solt on first and second, Alba laid a sacrifice bunt down the first base line to score Cyr. A fielding error later in the inning by the Hawks on a Barba hit would make the score 6-1. Two more runs from Alba and Barba in the sixth would end the scoring of the first game in the doubleheader.
The second game was almost a polar opposite experience for Quinnipiac. Hannah Lindsley threw a complete game and gave up four hits, along with one run, three walks, and two strikeouts. She was burdened with six fielding errors that ultimately contributed to the loss.
Jordan Barnett of the Hawks had the Bobcats’ number. From the second out of the first inning until the first out of the seventh, only one batter made it on base while 17 others were retired. Barnett made up for the lack of strikeouts with the defense of her team as 16 of 21 outs were groundouts.
Alba and Barba recorded the only two hits for the team as the Quinnipiac offense was hard to come by in game two.
Quinnipiac now sits with a 7-19 (1-1 NEC) record. Its next game is April 4 at Stony Brook.
