MOORHEAD, Minn. – The Carleton College softball team kicked off the final week of the regular season with a doubleheader sweep at Concordia College-Moorhead. The Knights claimed game one 6-4 (8 inn.) before cruising to a 13-3 (5 inn.) victory in game two.
Cassie Cunniff (Sr./Mt. Prospect, Ill./Prospect) collected six more hits on the day, raising her MIAC-leading season batting average to .496.
Game 1 Recap
Carleton 6, Concordia 4 (8 inn.)
The bats came alive late as the Knights (15-19, 6-12 MIAC) went to extra inning for the first time this season.
Concordia (5-30,1-18 MIAC) plated a pair of unearned runs in the bottom of the first, but Carleton got one of those runs back when
Amy Chen (Jr./Kirkland, Wash./Lake Washington) hit a sacrifice fly in the fourth inning.
The Knights still trailed 2-1 heading into the final frame, setting the stage for dramatics on both offense and defense.
Emma Kartheiser (Sr./Oronoco, Minn./Century) drew a walk to open the top of the seventh, and
Helen Moses (Jr./Denver, Colo./Denver East) had a bunt single. Cunniff followed with a game-tying single up the middle.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Carleton defense came up with two key plays. The first out of the inning was registered when a Cobber runner was thrown out trying to go first to third on a ball that ended up in right field. Concordia got the tying run to third with only one out later in the frame, but pitcher
Bryanna Schaffer (So./San Diego, Calif./Mar Vista) fielded a grounder and tossed the ball home where
Laurie Avila (Sr./Sugar Grove, Ill./Oswego) applied the tag in time to cut down the potential winning run. Another groundout to Schaffer sent the game to extra innings.
In the eighth, Chen worked a leadoff walk, Kartheiser singled, and Moses delivered a go-ahead single to score Chen. Cunniff followed with her second RBI hit of the game, and Moses scored the Knights' fifth run of the day when the centerfielder committed an error. Cunniff then stole second base and came around to score thanks to two more Cobber miscues.
Concordia plated two runs—one of them unearned—in the bottom of the eighth. Schaffer then induced a groundout and a strikeout—both with the tying run at the plate—to end the game.
Cunniff finished 3-for-5 with two RBI. Schaffer and Moses both had two hits.
Schaffer (1-4) went the distance on the rubber, earning her first career victory. She allowed four runs, only one earned, on five hits with a walk and three strikeouts. This was the longest outing by a Knight pitcher since
Logan Robinson '22 tossed 9.0 innings in a 3-2 win over Saint Mary's on April 9, 2022.
Game 2 Recap
Carleton 13, Concordia 3 (5 inn.)
The Knights carried the momentum over to game two, scoring in each of the first three frames.
Cunniff led off the game with her MIAC-leading seventh triple of the game and immediately scored on Schaffer's RBI groundout. Kartheiser added to the Carleton lead with her second home run of the season, this one a three-run shot to right-center in the second inning.
Avila and
Grace Colburn (Fy./Bainbridge Island, Wash./Bainbridge) had back-to-back doubles in the third inning, with the latter scoring on Chen's two-out single to center that give the Knights a 6-0 lead.
Concordia sliced the deficit in half in the bottom of the fourth inning, scoring three times on five singles.
The Knights responded with a seven-run outburst in the top of the fifth.
Adriana Wiggins (Fy./Long Beach, Calif./Wilson) had two singles in the inning, the second of which capped the scoring in the frame. Chen, Kartheiser, Cunniff, and Schaffer also had RBI singles, while Moses chipped in with an RBI triple. This was the fifth time this season that Carleton scored seven runs in an inning.
Cunniff and Chen paced the 15-hit attack with three hits apiece, while Wiggins and Kartheiser each added two hits.
Faith Hanshaw (Sr./The Woodlands, Texas/The Woodlands Christian Academy) picked up the win with 4.0 innings of work on the rubber.
Hala Soliman (Sr./Harrisburg, N.C./Lake Norman Charter) tossed a scoreless fifth to close out the sweep.
Up Next for the Knights
Carleton visits Gustavus Adolphus College for a 3:30 p.m. twinbill on Tuesday, May 2, before wrapping up the regular season with two games against MIAC-leading Bethel University on Saturday, May 6.
