The Ithaca College softball team rolled to pitching-led victories in both legs of the doubleheader April 21 versus the SUNY Cortland Red Dragons. In Game 1, the Bombers grabbed an early 3-2 lead and held onto it for the rest of the contest. In Game 2, they survived a Red Dragons’ seventh inning rally to win 4-3.
The games were the Bombers’ ninth and 10th straight wins against the Red Dragons, a streak that dates back to 2016. The Bombers advanced to 20-7 after the day’s action, while the Red Dragons dropped to 17-10. Bombers’ senior infielder Cate Murray said that winning these games has the team amped up.
“Regionally, that’s huge,” Murray said. “We’re all very excited, [head coach Kelly Robichaud] is very excited.”
Game 1:
Red Dragons’ senior catcher Shelby LaMont started the scoring in the top of the first inning by clubbing a two-run home run into right field for a 2-0 lead. The Bombers wasted no time in responding during their turn at bat because Murray hit a laser double to the outfield wall that scored two. She later scored on an infield single. This 3-2 score would hold for the rest of the game.
After that, Bombers pitching and defense took the spotlight. Junior pitcher Mady Rowell went five innings, striking out three and allowing just two earned runs. The Red Dragons could not string hits together, instead getting under Rowell’s offerings and popping them up. She induced eight flyouts during her outing.
Bombers’ junior outfielder Anna Bello was a big reason why those fly balls turned into outs. In the top of the second inning, she started with a terrific diving catch. To do so, Bello had to range back and to her right to make the play on the warning track. In the top of the seventh, Bello got an even better jump and ran down a liner in the gap. Had the ball gotten down, the Red Dragons would have had a runner in scoring position to potentially tie the game.
Murray matched Bello in the fifth with a great play ranging to her left from her position at second base. Fielding the ball forehand in a full sprint, Murray spun around to fire a strike to first base, which got the runner by a step. The play saved what certainly would have been at least one run, and Rowell later worked out of the jam unscathed.
Murray said that the great defense was a complement to the great pitching.
“Our pitchers really hold it down on the mound,” Murray said. “We’re just there to help them out.”
Red Dragons’ sophomore pitcher Gianna Endieveri pitched a terrific game herself, and by the fifth had settled into a groove. After a leadoff single in the fourth, she retired nine in a row to finish six innings of work with zero earned runs.
Bombers’ junior pitcher Taylor Brunn entered the game in the sixth and efficiently mowed down any Red Dragons resistance to close it out. She faced only seven batters across two innings, striking out two of them.
Game 2:
The Bombers earned the win, pitching out of a Red Dragons’ seventh inning rally, which managed to put the tying run on third. The Bombers again scored all their runs in one inning. Oddly enough, out of the 26 half-innings played during the day, runs only scored in four of them.
The Bombers caused traffic on the basepaths in the first three innings but were unable to capitalize. The second inning was particularly aggravating for the team. With the bases loaded and two outs, Bello hit a ball right on the screws only for it to go directly into a Red Dragons’ hide.
Bombers’ first-year pitcher Madison Collins set down the Red Dragons 1-2-3 in the first and second innings before the first baserunners reached in the third. She got out of the tough situation, inducing a grounder to shortstop for the force out at second base. Murray said the defense made the pitching effective.
“They trust us as defense,” Murray said. “[The pitchers] did a great job of composing themselves and just stuck to their plan.”
It was the bottom of the fourth inning when the Bombers struck first. Senior outfielder Jessie Lopez swatted a single to left field, and soon thereafter, the bases were loaded. Sophomore outfielder Molly Gibson mashed another single to left field, only scoring one due to how hard the ball was hit. A sacrifice fly RBI and a Murray two-run double to center established a 4-0 Bombers lead.
Collins kept dealing as the game went into the later innings, pitching to soft contact instead of trying to miss bats. A Red Dragons offense that had just jumped all over SUNY Morrisville on April 18 was getting thoroughly dominated through six innings in this game. At this point, their offense had been scoreless for 12 straight innings since their 2-run first in game one.
This streak was broken in the seventh when the Red Dragons broke through with two runs before an out was made. The bullpen was able to hold down the win, but not before some added pressure from the Red Dragons. Down 4-3 with runners on the corners and two outs, a merciful flyout ended the day and solidified the Bombers’ sweep.
The Bombers go on the road this weekend to take on the Rochester Institute of Technology Tigers at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. April 26 in Rochester, New York.
