WINTER HAVEN, Fla. - The Saint Joseph's softball team picked up a pair of wins on Tuesday in its opening day of the Rebel Games. The Hawks downed Hampton 12-2 in the opener and won in their final at-bat, 8-7, versus Fairfield.
Versus Hampton, the Hawks quickly jumped out to a 5-0 lead, scoring twice in the first and three times in the top of the third. Isabella Picard and Melissa Ruf scored in the first, while Nicole Palase opened the third with a solo home run. Brandi Harkness and Sarah Yoos would go on to score in the third to push the Hawks' lead to five.
Ruf homered in the fourth to push the lead to six, but Hampton struck back for a run in the bottom of the inning making it a 6-1 game.
Saint Joseph's would go on to score three times in the fifth and three times in the seventh, while freshman pitcher Madison Clarke limited Hampton to a run in the fifth and nothing else as she picked up the complete game victory.
Clarke finished the game with four strike outs after allowing just six hits over seven innings. Harkness, Yoos and Ashley Alden each finished with two RBIs, while Harkness, Alden, Ruf, Picard and Nikki Alden all collected two hits apiece.
In game two, Saint Joseph's broke a 7-7 tie in its final at-bat. Nikki Alden led off the bottom of the seventh with a double, with Hannah Dionne reaching safely in the next at-bat as she was hit by a pitch. Following a sinlge by Kerrie Kortmann that loaded the bases, Picard was hit by a pitch, scoring Alden to earn the victory for the Hawks.
Fairfield jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the top of the first, but SJU battled back for three runs in the bottom of the inning as Ruf picked up a RBI on a double and Yoos drove in two on a triple.
A tewo-run top of the second pushed Fairfield's lead to 7-3, but again the Hawks answered with three runs in the bottom of the inning. A Picard single and a Harkness double drove in all three Saint Joseph's runs as they cut the edge to just one.
With Nikki Alden keeping Fairfield at a distance at the plate through the middle innings, Clarke came on in the sixth and set the visitors down over the final two innings.
Getting strong pitching, Saint Joseph's tied the game at 7-7 on a RBI single by Kortmann in the fifth and followed in the seventh with the game-winning run.
Clarke picked up her second win on the day to move to 6-1 on the season, while Kortmann led SJU at the plate with a game-high three hits.
Saint Joseph's (8-4) caps play at the Rebel Games on Wednesday versus Niagara and South Dakota.
