DULUTH, Minn. – The Carleton College softball team dropped two close games at the College of St. Scholastica, falling 3-1 and 6-5.
The Knights had baserunners in 13 of 14 innings on the day but struggled at times to come up with key hits, going a combined 3-for-17 with two sacrifice flies and a sacrifice bunt when batting with runners in scoring position.
Game 1 Recap
St. Scholastica 3, Carleton 1
Things started great for Carleton (12-18, 3-11 MIAC) as
Cassie Cunniff (Sr./Mt. Prospect, Ill./Prospect) walked to begin the game and raced home on
Bryanna Schaffer's (So./San Diego, Calif./Mar Vista) double. Unfortunately, that was all the scoring for the Knights in the contest.
St. Scholastica (14-14, 4-8 MIAC) knotted the score at 1-1 with a two-out run in the third inning.
The game remained tied until the Saint's Samantha Paniagua hit a two-run walkoff home run in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Schaffer made the start in the circle for Carleton, allowing one run over 4.0 innings.
Game 2 Recap
St. Scholastica 6, Carleton 5
Once again, the Knights scored first. As she did in the opener, Cunniff worked a leadoff walk, this time scoring on sacrifice fly by
Adriana Wiggins (Fy./Long Beach, Calif./Wilson).
In the bottom of the first, St. Scholastica leveled the score by pulling off a double steal that brought a run home.
The back-and-forth play continued when
Emma Kartheiser (Sr./Oronoco, Minn./Century) hit a two-run double in the top of the second inning, followed by
Helen Moses' (Jr./Denver, Colo./Denver East) single that gave the visitors a 4-1 lead.
St. Scholastica responded with four runs in the bottom of the frame, three of them coming with two out. The Saints tallied their final run in the third inning.
The score remained 6-4 in the hosts' favor until the top of the fifth.
Laurie Avila (Sr./Sugar Grove, Ill./Oswego) tripled with one out and scored on a sacrifice fly by
Grace Colburn (Fy./Bainbridge Island, Wash./Bainbridge).
The Knights had scoring chances in the sixth and seventh innings but could not scratch out the tying run.
Wiggins and Kartheiser both had two hits in the game to pace the Knights.
Faith Hanshaw (Sr./The Woodlands, Texas/The Woodlands Christian Academy) twirled 4.1 innings of 1-run relief.
Up Next for the Knights
Carleton returns home to host Macalester College for a Senior Day doubleheader at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 29. The Knights then travel to Concordia College-Moorhead for another twinbill the following day.
