CLERMONT, Fla. – With two more victories on Monday, the Carleton College softball team improved to 9-1 on the year, the best start to a season in program history. Logan Robinson (Sr./Alexandria, Va./National Cathedral School) pitched the Knights to a 4-2 victory over Allegheny College in the day's first game, and Cassie Cunniff (Jr./Mt. Prospect, Ill./Prospect) later smacked two home runs in a 13-6 triumph over Bates College.
 
"We played some really great TEAM softball today," said Carleton head coach Amy Erickson. "Logan threw another gem of a game, and we made full use of our limited hits in game one.
 
"We did a great job of coming out of the gate and putting the pressure on right from the start of game two. We really started to get some quality at bats up and down the lineup to create more opportunities to score."
 
Carleton went 8-2 to start the 2019 season and was 7-3 through the first 10 games of the 1997 and 2000 campaigns.
 
Carleton 4, Allegheny 2
The Gators pushed across a pair of unearned runs in the top of the second inning, but the Knights countered with a three-run, two-out rally in the third stanza.
 
With two out and the bases empty, Bryanna Schaffer (Fy./San Diego, Calif./Mar Vista) singled and scored on Cunniff's single. Amy Chen (So./Kirkland, Wash./Lake Washington) drew a walk, and both runners stole a bag to precede Laurie Avila's (Jr./Sugar Grove, Ill./Oswego) two-run hit.
 
Ella Collins (Fy./Ashburn, Va./Riverside) manufactured an insurance run in the fourth. She reached on an error and promptly stole second. She then swiped third base, too, and came home when the catcher's throw was off target.
 
That was enough run support for Robinson, who improved to 3-0 this season after yielding only two hits in her second complete game effort of the trip. After a rough outing in her season debut back in mid-February, Robison has allowed only one earned run over her last 20.0 innings to lower her season ERA to 1.85.
 
Carleton 13, Bates 6
The Knights jumped all over the Bobcats early, pushing across seven runs in the top of the first inning. They added three more runs in the third inning before tacking on single tallies in the fifth, sixth, and seventh frames.
 
Cunniff belted her first career home run in the fifth inning then went deep again in the seventh. This was the eighth time over the last 19 seasons that a Knight homered twice in a game (see chart below).
 
Carleton used three pitchers in the game, including Moira Rankin (Fy./Potomac, Md./Wootton), who hurled 3.0 scoreless frames of 1-hit relief to record her first collegiate victory.
 
Carleton players with two home runs in the game (since 2004)
Emily Maland vs. Saint Benedict, 4/27/2008
Michael Johnson vs. Concordia, 4/14/09 (note: both were grand slams)
Jenny Ramey at St. Thomas, 4/2/11
Jenny Ramey vs. Saint Mary's, 5/3/13
Jenny Ramey vs. Gustavus, 4/09/14
Cassie Clark vs. Millikin University 3/01/15
Sam Kile vs. Concordia; 4/27/18
Cassie Cunniff vs. Bates, 3/21/22
 
Up Next for the Knights
Carleton returns to the diamond on Wednesday, March 23, for a 9:00 a.m. ET/8:00 a.m. CT game with Elmhurst followed by an 11:15 a.m. ET/10:15 a.m. CT game against Washington & Jefferson.