AMHERST, Mass. – The Amherst College softball team keeps finding new ways to win.
Just two days after using a late three-run homer to come from behind for a 5-2 win over Williams College, the Lord Jeffs completed a three-game sweep of their archrivals by taking both ends of a doubleheader on Sunday.
Amherst (17-0, 3-0 NESCAC West) scored six times in the fifth inning of Sunday's opener and held on for a 6-1 win, but the nightcap required some late heroics after the Ephs (6-11, 0-3 NESCAC West) carried a 6-3 lead into the bottom of the seventh. The Jeffs strung together five consecutive hits to complete the comeback, as a single by Carolyn Miller '14 drove in two runs and capped a 7-6 walk-off victory.
Theresa Kelley '13 was the winning pitcher in both games, moving her record to 10-0 and helping Amherst stretch the program's longest win streak to 17. This weekend marked the first time since 1998 the Jeffs pulled off a sweep of the Ephs, who had ended each of Amherst's past five seasons.
The Jeffs are now 6-0 in games in which they were trailing after five innings, while Sunday's nightcap marked their fourth walk-off win of the season and their sixth one-run victory.
The first game of the doubleheader featured a pitchers' duel between Kelley and Megan Casey, who combined to allow only one runner to reach third base through four and a half scoreless innings. Amherst finally broke through with six runs in the fifth by taking advantage of two Williams errors, as Donna Leet '15 highlighted the rally with a 2-RBI single up the middle.
The Ephs got one back in the top of the sixth, but Kelley closed out the win to finish with seven strikeouts and only five hits allowed in the complete-game effort. Casey struck out five and surrendered four hits in 4.1 innings, but she and relief pitcher Kaitlin Dinet were the victims of five unearned runs.
The second game was a back-and-forth affair that began with Ali Graebner giving Williams a 2-0 lead on a 2-RBI single in the top of the first. Amherst took a 3-2 lead in the third after Leet and Miller came up with RBI singles, as the Ephs were hurt by another pair of miscues in the field.
The Ephs regained the lead in the fourth after an RBI double by Mo Frank and a run-scoring single from Allison Hart, and they made it a 5-3 game on an RBI groundout in the fifth. After Emma Harrington shut down the Jeffs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, she got another insurance run in the top of the seventh when Amanda Correnti doubled to right field to bring the score to 6-3.
Kelley came in for relief after Correnti's double and struck out the only two batters she faced, with the top of Amherst's order due up in the bottom of the seventh. Kaitlin Silkowitz '14 began a one-out rally with a bunt single and would come around to score on a double to left field by Leet, who chased Harrington from the game with the Ephs holding on to a 6-4 cushion.
Williams brought in Casey for relief, but the Jeffs got right back to work when Reilly Horan '13 reached on an infield single. Idalia Friedson '15—who hit the winning homer in Friday's win over the Ephs—then scored Leet on a double to right field, setting up a second-and-third situation with only one out. Miller put the finishing touch on a thrilling day by sending a sharp single into left field, allowing Horan and Friedson to score the sixth and seventh runs for the walk-off win.
Leet had three hits in the second game and was a combined 4-for-7 with four RBIs and three runs scored, while Horan, Friedson and Miller had two hits apiece in the nightcap. Nine players recorded a hit on Sunday for the Jeffs, who are batting .334 as a team.
Arielle Doering '14 surrendered four runs and struck out four batters in the first four innings of the second game, while Caroline Sealander '15 accounted for the other two runs in 2.1 innings of relief. Harrington pitched well for Williams but did not factor into the decision after striking out eight and allowing only two earned runs in 6.1 innings.
The Lord Jeffs will get right back to work on Monday with a doubleheader at Smith College. Amherst will then play two at Westfield State on Wednesday before hosting regional powerhouse Keene State in a doubleheader on Friday.
GAME 1 BOX SCORE
GAME 2 BOX SCORE
PHOTO GALLERY
