The temperature isn’t the only thing rising in Ithaca these days — the softball team’s batting average has been skyrocketing.

“The kids have worked hard,” Head Coach Deb Pallozzi said. “And [we’re] playing games, so you get into a rhythm.”

That rhythm has catapulted the Blue and Gold to 12 consecutive wins before losing the first out of two games to King’s College on Tuesday, falling 5–4 in eight innings. The South Hill squad was able to get one win in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., winning the second game 1–0.

During the 12-game winning streak, five games saw the Bombers score at least seven runs, while their opponents were either shut out or only able to get one or two runs on the board.

Pallozzi said she is pleased with the way her pitchers have been constantly improving as the season progresses.

“The pitchers have worked very hard,” Pallozzi said. “Each game we do more things more positively.”

As far as the hitting goes, Pallozzi said the captains and the rest of the seniors are the ones leading by example in practice and in games.

“That’s what they’re supposed to do,” Pallozzi said. “That’s their role.”

But it hasn’t been just one or two players who are swinging the bats particularly well – almost the whole lineup is on fire lately.

“We’ve been working together as a team more and more everyday,” senior co-captain and pitcher Nicole Cade said.

Still, out of the everyday starters, there are two players who have emerged as go-to performers: senior co-captain and shortstop Erica Cutspec and junior center fielder Chelsey Feldman.

Cutspec is sporting a .446 batting average with three doubles, three triples, one home run, 14 RBIs and 14 runs scored. She also has a .608 slugging percentage and a .494 on-base percentage.

Feldman, who is no stranger to athletic success on the South Hill due to her outstanding play on the women’s soccer team, is hitting .434 with two triples, 15 runs scored, a .509 slugging percentage and a .455 on-base percentage.

“I [just] wait for my pitch,” Feldman said. “I’ve been focusing in practice on what Coach says, keeping my shoulder down and just seeing the ball and making contact with it.”

With Feldman’s impressive numbers, it is easy to assume she is batting in the top half of the batting order. However, Feldman is hitting out of the nine spot in Ithaca’s stacked lineup.

She said it is because of her ability to bunt and get on base. If she is able to get on base with a bunt, that can give the number one, two and three hitters the opportunity to move her over and cause some damage to the opposing team.

“I think [Pallozzi] put me there because I was getting the bunt down pretty early in the season,” Feldman said.

Throughout the season, whether the Bombers have been hitting or pitching well, the main focus of the team remains on constantly trying to improve.

The Bombers hope this improvement leads to another pair of weekend doubleheader sweeps against Empire 8 rivals, starting at 1 p.m. Saturday at Kostrinsky Field against Utica College.