Teams: Softball: Schedule & Results

TUFTS GETS TWO MORE VICTORIES AT SUN WEST TOURNAMENT

COLLEGE SOFTBALL FINAL SCORES
Sun West Tournament
Tufts 16, Avila 3 (5 inn.)
Tufts 8, St. Mary's (MN) 7

At Orange, CA
Monday, March 17, 2008

Avila Box Score

St. Mary's (MN) Box Score

ORANGE, Calif. -- The #15 Tufts softball team is undefeated two days into the annual Sun West Tournament near Los Angeles. On Monday, the Jumbos scored a 16-3 win in five innings against Avila University from Kansas City and a comeback 8-7 win versus Saint Mary's University of Minnesota.

Tuft scored nine times in the first inning to set the tone against Avila. They sent 15 batters to the plate, with sophomore SS Casey Sullivan (Berlin, CT) hitting a two-run single. Sullivan had just joined the team on Sunday after flying across country from Pennsylvania where she was playing with the Tufts basketball team in the NCAA Touranment "Elite 8" against Messiah. The Jumbos added six more runs against Avila in the third and led 15-0. Senior co-captain and catcher Megan Cusick (Albany, NY) hit a grand slam.

First-year Kim Miner (Concord, MA) was the beneficiary of the great run support in her first collegiate start. She allowed six hits and three runs in five innings. Among 16 total Tufts hits, Sullivan was 4 for 4 with four runs scored and four RBI, hitting a solo home run in the fourth. Junior 3B Samantha Kuhles (Somerville, NJ) was 3 for 4 with three runs scored. Cusick finished with five RBI. First-year RF Sasha Hughes with two hits was the lone Avila player to put up a crooked number offensively.

Tufts scored two runs in the top of the seventh inning to win an 8-7 decision against St. Mary's. The Jumbos erupted for five runs in the top of the fifth inning to grab a 6-2 advantage. They had three doubles in the inning, including run-scoring hits by junior LF Roni Herbst (Montclair, NJ) and sophomore 1B Christy Tinker (Woodbridge, CT). SMU scored twice in the bottom of the fifth and three times in the sixth to grab a 7-6 lead heading into the seventh inning. In the seventh, however, senior 2B Danielle Lopez (Danvers, MA) led off with a home run junior CF Laura Chapman (Seattle, WA) hit a two-out single to put Tufts up 8-7.

Tufts junior Lauren Gelmetti (Westfield, NJ), who entered with one out in the sixth, set the Cardinals down 1-2-3 in the seventh to earn the victory. There were several contributors to the Tufts offense, with Lopez finished 2 for 4 with two RBI to lead the way.

Sophomore Jenna Johnson was 2 for 3 with two RBI for the Cardinals. Both teams finished with 12 hits. SMU fell to 1-5 overall.

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