FORT MYERS, Fla. – The Wilmington College softball team mounted two comebacks Wednesday with one falling short in a 10-8 loss to Lesley College and the other succeeding in a 5-4 triumph over Western Connecticut State University in eight innings.
In the loss to Lesley, Megan Crager had two hits and scored twice while drawing three walks. Mariyah Burkhardt had two hits as well. Allison Pierce doubled home two runs in the third. KenDahl Bowles also had an RBI. Hayley Suchland knocked in a run.
Alexis Stringfellow dipped to 1-1 allowing five earned runs on eight hits in 3.2 innings pitched. Hunter Salyers allowed two runs on three hits with four walks in 3.1 innings for Wilmington.
In game two, Western Connecticut State used five stolen bases to take a 4-0 lead after three complete innings. Wilmington answered in the top of the fourth by using a Colonial error to score two unearned runs on an RBI-single from Bowles. The next inning, Alicia Kemp launched a two-run home run to straight-away center field that tied the game 4-4.
Wilmington sent the game into extra innings as a Suchland single that led off the bottom of the seventh came around to score thanks to a sacrifice bunt from Cook and an RBI fielder’s choice from Kemp.
With the international run rule, which places a runner at second base to begin extra innings, in effect, Cook put down a perfectly-executed sacrifice bunt that advanced Je’Taysia Johns to third. Bowles then delivered a go-ahead single through the left side.
In the bottom half of the eighth, the Colonials also got the sacrifice bunt down, but back-to-back strikeouts by Suchland gave Wilmington the come-from-behind victory.
Suchland earned the complete-game win allowing seven hits with five walks and seven strikeouts over eight innings.
Crager finished 3-for-4 at the top of the lineup while Kemp hit the home run as well as driving in three runs. Bowles also record another multi-hit game.
Wilmington (6-2) closes out its spring trip to Florida with games beginning at 9 a.m. Thursday against Knox College and Rochester Institute of Technology.
