The Quinnipiac softball team (17-23, 3-5 MAAC) and the Fairfield Stags (21-17, 7-4 MAAC) split a doubleheader on Saturday afternoon at the Quinnipiac Softball team. The Bobcats won the first game 1-0 while the Stags took the second game 2-1.

Not only were each of these contests one-run games, but both teams saw one-hit performances from their starting pitches in their wins.

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In the first game, senior Sydney Robey (7-11) led the Bobcats as she struck out seven batters, allowed one hit and surrendered no walks while pitching her fifth complete game of the season.

“She did a good job of keeping the batters off-balance,” Bobcats manager Jill Karwoski said on Robey’s performance. “In the batter’s box, the hitters kept on moving up and back so that definitely kept them off-balance which was the key to her success today.

Sophomore Angelina McGuire was the only Stag to get on base against Robey when she singled in the second inning.

Robey also drove in the only run of the game in the third when she hit a two-out double to left off of Fairfield’s starting pitcher, sophomore Destinee Pallotto (8-9), that scored freshman Sarah Heimbach from first. Robey ended up getting out at third trying to stretch the double into a triple.

Robey got the last 16 batters out and closed the game by getting all three batters to ground out to third baseman Casey Herzog in the seventh inning.

Heimbach was the only player with a multi-hit game in both games getting two hits in game one.

Game two had another pitcher’s duel that ended up going to extra-innings, only to be decided by two errors by the Bobcats’ middle infielders.

Stags senior Lauren Filicia started the top of the eighth inning with a single to right off of Herzog (9-10), who pitched her tenth complete game of the season in game two. Filicia then moved to second after sacrifice bunt by freshman Alicia Marshall in the next at-bat.

Filicia caught the Bobcat defense off-guard when she went to steal third base. The ball got by shortstop Miranda Magano and Filicia came in to score and put the Stags up 2-1.

“It was miscommunication,” Karwoski said on the error. “We had the right defense and set for that particular play in the last inning. We just didn’t execute properly.”

Lauren Falkanger (11-2), who started for Fairfield, got the Bobcats to go down in order in the eighth to cap off a complete game one-hitter.

The Bobcats went up 1-0 when senior Dani Edmands singled to right, scoring Heimbach, who had walked and stolen second earlier in the inning.

The Bobcats didn’t get another hit for the rest of the day after that and only got three runners on base after the first inning.

“We fell short offensively today,” Karwoski said. “We were a little passive at the plate. We tried to make some adjustments too late in the game which we got to do a bit earlier.”

Marshall got the first hit of the day for the Stags in the fourth with a single to left. She advanced to second on the next at-bat when the Bobcats tried to convert a double play, but second baseman Emily Czaja dropped the ball.

Sophomore Kate Robinson tied the game up two batters later with a single to right to score Marshall.

Herzog finished the day with four strikeouts, allowing five hits and zero earned runs.

“Our pitching staff is geared for results” Karwoski said on her team’s pitching performance against the second highest-scoring offense in the MAAC. “We got a lot of ground balls and fly balls in some key situations. Our defense was solid outside of that last play.”
The Bobcats return to the Quinnipiac Softball Field where they host Iona (8-26, 2-6 MAAC) for two games on Sunday afternoon.