Over spring break, the Amherst women’s softball team traveled to Winter Garden, Florida to start off its 2017 season. Taking advantage of the warmer weather, the team played twelve games.
Amherst faced off against University of New England and Wittenberg University on March 11, Lake Forest College and Endicott College on March 12, Millsaps College and Salve Regina University on March 14, Bowdoin and Washington University on March 15, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and Arcadia College on March 17, and the team finished their trip with games against Babson College and University of Wisconsin-Whitewater on March 18.
Of their 12 games, the purple and white won seven and lost five, scoring 62 runs in total and allowing only 46.
The purple and white kicked off their season with two wins on March 11, outscoring New England 9-1 and Wittenberg 7-0. Against New England, Alena Marovitz ’17 had two home runs and four RBIs, while Ally Kido ’18 had two doubles and one run scored. First-year Andrea Sanders added an RBI and a stolen base. In game two, Amherst scored all seven runs in the fifth inning in another winning effort.
Amherst tallied another win during game three against Lake Forest, with a final score of 6-5. Amherst led the game 6-0 for the first five innings, but Lake Forest came back with five runs in the sixth and seventh inning. Amherst held them off, however, and secured another victory.
The purple and white suffered its first loss of the trip to Endicott on March 12 on a walk-off single, but after a much-needed off-day, the squad came back with three more wins, defeating Millsaps 3-0, Salve Regina 12-2 and NESCAC foe Bowdoin in a close 9-8 game. Against Millsaps, the purple and white scored three runs in the sixth inning and shutout Millsaps for the rest of the game to secure the win.
The matchup against Salve Regina consisted of only six innings; Amherst scored in five of those six and had eighteen hits, a season best.
Against Bowdoin, Amherst trailed for the majority of the game. Going into the final inning, Bowdoin led 8-3. However, in the bottom of the seventh, Amherst rallied and scored six runs to take the win.
The purple and white looked to be losing steam after seven games in just four days, as they suffered three close losses in a row to Washington (Mo.), Wisconsin-Oshkosh and Arcadia.
The women recovered, however, and on their last day of play in Florida, Amherst defeated Babson 3-1. Amherst pitchers Gina Pagan ’18 and Lorena Ukanwa ’19 highlighted the purple and white’s performance during this week of play. Combined, the two women struck out 91 strikeouts in the twelve games played. Pagan averaged 9.61 strikeouts per game while Ukanwa averaged 8.73.
“Out of my four trips to Florida over my collegiate career, I would say that this year was definitely our most successful tournament,” said Marovitz. “We proved that we can compete with any team in the country, and all of us cannot wait to begin conference play and take down our NESCAC opponents.”
The Amherst women’s softball team will take the field again to face off against Trinity in a non-conference doubleheader on Saturday, March 25.
