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After an attempted comeback came up short in the opening game of the day, the Carleton College softball team earned a walk-off victory in game two as the Knights split their home doubleheader against Macalester College, 2-3 and 7-6 (10 innings).
Macalester (13-8, 1-3 MIAC) jumped out to an early lead in the opener, scoring three runs in the first inning. Carleton (6-14, 1-5 MIAC) pulled a run back in the bottom of the sixth, as Arielle Zuaro (Fy./Scotch Plain, N.J./Scotch Plains-Fanwood) struck a single that scored Keelin Davis (Jr./Woodinville, Wash./Woodinville) from second. Carleton pulled within a run in the seventh on Katie Eppard’s (Fy./ Pleasanton, Calif./Amador Valley) two-out RBI double, but the rally ran out of time.
Carleton faced a 5-0 deficit when the Knights came to bat in the third inning of game two. With a runner aboard, Cassie Clarke (So./Edina, Minn./Edina) ripped her fifth home run of the season well beyond the left field wall. The next inning, the Knights capitalized on Macalester miscues to score two more runs.
Still trailing by one in the bottom of the seventh, Molly Steinberg (Fy./Santa Monica, Calif./Harvard Westlake)—who finished the contest 4-for-5—singled up the middle to bring Clarke home from second base, leveling the score at 5-5.
The Scots inched ahead in the ninth with a two-out RBI single from G.G. Gunther. In the bottom of the frame, Micaela LaRose (Sr./ Wiconia, Minn./Holy Family) doubled to left-center field, but Clarke was thrown out at the plate. With the Knights seemingly down to their final out, Steinberg delivered again, singling home LaRose to force the game into a 10th inning.
Under NCAA tiebreaker rules, at this point, each half-inning begins with a runner at second base.
Macalester missed out on its scoring chance when Gunther, the Scots’ extra baserunner, was called out for runner interference.
In the bottom of the 10th, Mia Orans (So./San Francisco, Calif./ Piedmont) started the inning standing at second base for the Knights. Davis successfully sacrificed Orans to third. Corrie Lucchesi (Fy./Chicago, Ill./Lane Tech) was next to step to the plate, and her ground ball was mishandled on the infield as Orans raced home to score the winning tally.
Davis pitched 17.0 complete innings on the day, totaling 10 strikeouts on the afternoon.
Following the success against Macalester the Knights returned to action against Augsburg. A late rally in the first game came up short, and the Auggies’ offense proved too much to handle in game two as the Carleton College softball team dropped both games Monday afternoon against visiting Augsburg College by tallies of 9-4 and 10-6.
After Augsburg (7-18, 2-6 MIAC) struck first with a five-run third-inning, Carleton (6-15, 1-7 MIAC) answered with three runs of their own in the bottom of the frame to pull within 5-3. Both teams traded zeros before the Knights threatened with two on and two out in the bottom of the fifth, but Augsburg starter Lindsay Helbach induced a groundout to end the Carleton threat. After Augsburg added two more runs in the top half of the sixth, the Knights threatened again in the bottom of the frame with two on and one out, but were able to add only one run behind a sacrifice fly by Arielle Zuaro.
The Knights dropped the second game by 9 runs.