PHILADELPHIA – After squandering opportunities in a 5-3 nine-inning game one loss, the USciences softball team sent 13 batters to plate in a nine-run third en route to a 13-5 five-inning win in the nightcap of a doubleheader split with Bloomfield on Tuesday afternoon at Urban Youth Academy Field.
Game Two
The nine-run third featured 10 hits, including two by Abbigail Markee, with all the damage coming with two away.
Her one-out double was sandwiched between the first two outs, before Taylor Hamm's second home run in four games tied the score at 4-4.
Danielle Jones then singled, and Ashley Steiner's RBI triple gave University of the Sciences the lead for good.
Following back-to-back singles by Hannah Higgins and Miranda Rodriguez, Lauren DelGiudice cleared the bases with her first career home run, this one an inside-the-parker.
A pitching change could not change the momentum, as back-to-back-to-back singles by Gabrielle Simms, Markee and Gabriella Polera closed out the outburst.
Markee reached base four times as she also walked twice, leading to a season-high four runs scored.
Simms scored three times as she reached three times on two hits and a base on balls, while also stealing a base.
With those three runs, the junior moved into a tie for ninth in the program's recorded single-season history (since 2005) with 23 on the year.
Jones and Rodriguez also had two hits apiece, as all nine starters recorded at least one base knock.
Veronica Dark earned her first career win for USciences, going the distance as just two of the runs, on six hits, were earned.
Both teams scored twice in the first, with Bloomfield plating two unearned runs before Jones cancelled them out with a two-RBI double in the bottom-half.
The Bears then added one run in both the second and the third before the Devils' nine-run third.
Game One
Two unearned runs in the fourth were all Bloomfield could manage with just three hits in the opening eight innings, as starter Megan Master allowed just one base knock with a career-high six strikeouts in her 4.2 innings.
Gianna Abruzese relieved her with a season-long outing of 4.1 innings, surrendering just one earned on four hits with a season-high three strikeouts and no walks.
Bloomfield finally got to Abruzese in the ninth, with the score tied at 2-2 and the international rule in effect, as the Bears broke out with three runs on two hits.
University of the Sciences threatened in the bottom-half, as Jones led off with a hit-by-pitch to bring the tying run to the plate.
Following a sacrifice bunt, a DelGiudice RBI single cut the deficit to two and put the tying run on base, but back-to-back groundouts halted the comeback attempt.
That was DelGiudice's second hit, her fourth multi-hit performance in the last five games.
Hamm also had two base knocks, including a leadoff triple in the second that led to the game's opening run after she came in to score on Keiya Moncilovich's RBI groundout.
Master had a no-hitter through 3.1 innings before the two unearned runs in the fourth.
Abruzese relieved Master with two outs in the fifth and stranded runners on first and second, but USciences would also strand two after its first two runners reached in the bottom-half.
After a 1-2-3 top of the sixth by Abruzese, the Devils then had their first three runners reach on a Polera walk and back-to-back singles by Hamm and Moncilovich.
University of the Sciences could manage just one run on an error though, and after stranding two runners in top of the seventh, the Devils then failed to score DelGiudice from third with one away after she had led off with a single and moved to third on a wild pitch and ground out.
The two teams went down in order in the eighth.
Up Next
University of the Sciences returns to the diamond tomorrow, traveling to Goldey-Beacom for a 2:30 p.m. doubleheader.
