Moon Township, Pa. – The
Robert Morris University softball team nearly held on to a game two lead to split a Northeast Conference doubleheader against Central Connecticut at North Athletic Conference, but ultimately dropped two games to the visiting Blue Devils, 6-1 and 4-3, Sunday afternoon. The Colonials slip to 10-30 overall and 1-9 in the Northeast Conference while the Blue Devils improve to 16-25 and 7-5 in the league.
Natalie Higgins tallied three hits, including a double, to lead the Colonials offense.
Katie Isenberg hit her team-leading third homer of the season and added a double.
Kaitlyn Clark was 2-for-3 and drew three walks, reaching base on 5-of-6 plate appearances.
Abrielle McCartney added her third round tripper of the year.
In the circle,
Kaitlin Ellzy and
Laura Coulter both had solid days. Coulter, who came on in relief in game one, allowed just two earned runs and struck out three batters in 5.2 innings. Ellzy was saddled with the loss in the second game as she went the distance, striking out three while scattering eight hits and four runs.
The Blue Devils leadoff hitter reached on an error in the opener and made the Colonials pay immediately, taking a 1-0 lead. Tori Constantin then hit a leadoff homer to start the second. A triple and single followed, chasing RMU starter
Madison Riggle after 1 1/3 innings of work. The Blue Devils would tack on two more runs to jump ahead with a 4-0 lead. A two-out double by Isenberg turned into the Colonials first run when Clark singled her in one batter latter. The Blue Devils added two scores in the seventh inning, the only runs surrendered by Coulter in her relief appearance.
In game two, Isenberg launched a moon shot over the left field fence to give Robert Morris a 1-0 lead in the second inning. McCartney doubled the lead two innings later with a shot of her own to right center.
Ellzy was cruising until she got into trouble in the sixth when Sydney Bolan doubled to lead off the inning. After a groundout, a single put runners at first and third, but another grounder failed to advance the Bolan and the Colonials were nearly out of trouble. Constantin changed that with one swing of the bat, her three-run homer to left field giving CCSU the lead, 3-2.
Higgins opened the bottom of the frame with a line shot double to left and was replaced by pinch-runner
Lacee Collins. A grounder allowed Collins to move to third before Clark worked her third walk of the day to put runners at the corners. With Clark running on the pitch, Central Connecticut's Brittany McNulla faked a throw to second before firing to third in an attempt to catch Collins. Her throw, however, glanced off Collin's shoulder into left field allowing the tying run to score, 3-3.
Camara led off the seventh with an infield single and then stole second. She moved to third on a sacrifice bunt before scoring the gamewinning run on Lex Debrosse's single to center field.
The Colonials travel to Wagner next Saturday, April 28, for a 1:00 p.m. doubleheader.
