The month of April has signaled a new beginning for the Quinnipiac softball team thus far.
After a very poor start to the season, 7-23 and 0-3 in conference, the Bobcats managed to win seven straight games in April to breathe new life into their season. However, the road to redemption hit a speed bump Tuesday when they was defeated by Fairfield, 5-2.
Fairfield struck first after some sloppy fielding by Quinnipiac in the top of the first. After Lauren Liseth of Fairfield stole second base, she scored on an error by Jordan Paolucci on a routine exchange with the pitcher. Fielding would be an issue for the Bobcats throughout the game as they committed three errors on the day.
“Defensively we let down,” Quinnipiac head coach Germaine Fairchild said. “If you’re gonna make mistakes out there you got to out hit your mistakes and we didn’t do that either.”
However, the Bobcats would respond in the bottom of the inning, thanks to Fairfield experiencing a few defensive blunders of its own. Courtney Solt advanced to third and scored on a pair of wild pitches, and Alex Alba scored later in the inning on another wild pitch. Unfortunately for Quinnipiac, that would be where the runs ended.
The Bobcats held the lead until the third inning. Fairfield tied the game at 2 after an RBI triple from Liseth. They would take the lead in the fifth when Kristen Filicia scored on a double by Liseth and tack on another run in both the sixth and seventh for the final score of 5-2.
The late innings have been where Quinnipiac has thrived this season. The Bobcats have outscored their opponents by a margin of 23-3 in the sixth and seventh innings.
True to form, Quinnipiac began to show signs of life in the bottom of the seventh. With two outs Nikki Barbra and Paolucci hit singles to keep the game alive and it seemed as if Quinnipiac would rally yet again.
“I think you’ve gotta give a lot of credit to Nikki and Jordan,” Fairchild said. “If you look at how they’re hitting they’re good for a hit or more a game looking at their averages I think they take pride in that and they’re thinking we’re not gonna get out of here without me getting a hit.”
“We didn’t perform the way we were hoping to,” Fairchild said. “We talked before the game about coming out and continuing the sense of urgency that we’ve had through our 7 game winning streak and we didn’t do it.”
The loss snaps Quinnipiac’s win streak at seven games. On Thursday it will go on the road to take on Harvard.
“I think we’re really gonna test the teams desire here,” Fairchild said. “We need to just dig deep and understand that these opportunities are rare and we need to come out here and play the game it’s supposed to be played. We did not do that today so we’ll have another chance on Thursday. “
