(Box Score vs. Trinity) (Box Score
vs. UW-Stevens Point) (Box Score
vs. Grinnell)
CLERMONT, Fla. – The Plymouth State
University softball team played three games in less than 24 hours
to start the season Sunday night and Monday afternoon, posting a
1-2 record with one additional game rained out.
Rain forced postponement of Sunday's opening game against
Allegheny College (Pa.), and pushed back the next game to a 10 p.m.
start on Sunday night. PSU dropped that game to Trinity
College, 9-7, and came back to split a pair of games on Monday,
falling to the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, 11-3 in five
innings, before blanking Grinnell College (Iowa), 6-0.
Freshman Diana Bean (Danvers, Mass.) made the most
of her first collegiate pitching start against Grinnell, scattering
four hits in the complete-game whitewash while striking out eight
batters to record her first victory. Freshman Jenn
Bove (Medford, Mass.) gave the Panthers all the offense
they would need with an inside-the-park home run in the first
inning. Senior Kay LaBrie (Somersworth,
N.H.), junior Andrea Pydynkowski (Danvers, Mass.),
and sophomore Allie Luisi (North Kingstown, R.I.)
each collected two hits in the game for the Panthers.
PSU took a 2-0 lead in the first inning against UW-Stevens Point
earlier in the day when the first four batters drew walks and
sophomore Heather Blase (Milford, N.H.) followed
with an RBI single. Blase also hit a sacrifice fly in the third
inning for PSU but the Pointers scored six runs in the second
inning and added four more in the third to take a commanding 10-3
lead. One addition UWSP run in the fifth inning ended the
game on the eight-run rule. Bean came on the pitch in the
third inning in place of freshman starter Dom
Heres (Salem, N.H.).
The Panthers also took an early lead in Sunday's
night's late game against Trinity, scoring three runs in the
bottom of the first. It was tied 5-5 after three innings and PSU
scored one in the bottom of the sixth to deadlock the score at
6-6. The Bantams plated three runs in the top of the seventh
and a Panther rally in the bottom of the inning fell short.
Junior Kortney Nedeau (Kennebunk, Maine) led the
Panther hitters with a pair of home runs in the game.
Pydynkowski also cracked her first homer of the season, while
LaBrie also had two hits and senior Sammi Romano
(Kingston, N.H./Sanborn Regional) smacked a double in three at
bats. Sophomore Ali Keith (Northfield,
N.H./Winnisquam) was PSU's starting pitcher and worked five
innings before being relieved by Heres.
Plymouth State is slated to play two games Tuesday morning, facing
Wellesley College at 9:30 a.m. and Bowdoin College at 11:30 a.m.
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