Casey Ryder, Staff Writer |
This past Monday, Apr. 11, the softball team went 1-1 in a doubleheader with Buffalo State on what was a beautiful spring afternoon at Red Dragon Softball Field.
In the first contest, Buffalo State opened the scoring in the top of the second when Abigail Kruse made it home from second off a Caitlyn Parsons single up the middle.
However, our Red Dragons would respond emphatically in the bottom half of the inning. With the bases loaded and two outs, Caroline Koch stepped up to the plate and hit a double to left field bringing home Aysia Oliver from third and Gianna DiGiovanni from second to put the team up 2-1. Following that, Gianna Cancelleri singled to left center bringing home Delaney Haley from third and Koch from second to go up 4-1.
In the following inning, the Red Dragons continued to build on their advantage. Beginning with Marissa Nagel who, with the first at-bat of the inning, hit a home run to left-center to put the team up by four. Then, following a Julia Serena strikeout, Megan Palmatier hit a home run down the left-field line to put the team up 6-1.
Throughout the game, the team played excellent defense not giving up anything besides the one run in the second thanks in no small part to the excellent pitching of Cadence Brennan and as a result, the team coasted to a 6-1 victory.
In the second game, Buffalo State came out on fire and got off to an unbelievable start. First, Oriana Castello reached home from second after a fielding error from the Oneonta second baseman on Taylor Benton’s hit. A couple of at-bats later with the bases loaded, Sydney McIntosh hit a double to right-center bringing in all three runners to extend the lead to 4.
Following a pitching change made by Oneonta in the middle of the inning, things would continue to get better for the Bengals. With runners on first and second, Jenna Wlostwoski hit a double to left-center field, bringing home McIntosh from second to put them up by five. On the next at-bat, Kayla Wolinski made it home from third following an error by Oneonta’s first baseman. Then with the team already up by six, Wlostowski and Castello scored following an error by the Oneonta right fielder on Taylor Benton’s at-bat and at the end of the first inning, Buffalo State led by an astonishing score of 8-0!
Oneonta managed to get on the board in the bottom half of the inning when a Julia Serena single brought home, Marissa Nagel, from second. However, that was quickly canceled out in the top of the second by a Deme Kellogg double that brought home Caitlyn Parsons from third.
In the bottom of the second Oneonta managed to cut the lead when Sophia Mangone tagged up from third and later on Delaney Haley made it home from third on a passed ball.
In the fourth inning, the team added another run when Gianna DiGiovanni made it home from third as a result of a fielder’s choice, and in the fifth inning, the team added one more run when Julia Serena homered to left-center.
Following that in the top of the sixth, Buffalo State added an insurance run when Abigail Kruse homered to center field to put the Bengals up 10-5.
In the bottom half of that inning, Oneonta put a serious dent in the Bengals’ lead. After Julia Serena walked to load the bases with one out, Megan Palmatier hit a grand slam to left field to cut the lead to just one.
Because of the clutch play from Palmatier, the team trailed by just one heading into the seventh. After shutting out Buffalo State in the top half, they, unfortunately, were not able to score in the bottom half and were narrowly defeated 10-9.
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