Teams: Softball: Schedule & Results

COLLEGE SOFTBALL FINAL SCORE
Tufts 9, Bates 1 (5 inn.)

At Medford, MA
Friday, March 27, 2009

Game Box Score

Senior RF Alison Drobiarz had three hits and drove home the game-ending run

MEDFORD -- A week off didn't slow down the ninth-ranked Tufts University softball team, which returned to action on Friday afternoon with a 9-1 victory over Bates College in their home and NESCAC East Division opener at Spicer Field. The Jumbos, playing for the first time since their 12-0 run through the Sun West Tournament in California last week, improved to 13-0 overall.

Tufts put a four-spot on the scoreboard in their first at-bat. Senior Maya Ripecky (Chicago, IL), making her first career start at third base, poked a two-run double to spark the inning. The reigning NESCAC Player of the Week, Ripecky finished the game 2 for 3 with two runs scored and two RBI. Sophomore DH Christy Tinker (Woodbridge, CT) also hit a run-scoring single in the first.

Jumbo sophomore starter Izzie Santone (Madison, CT) retired 12 of the first 13 Bates hitters that she faced. Bobcat first-year catcher Leah Maciejewski (Tewksbury, MA) hit a lead-off single in the second, but was stranded at third. The Jumbos added two unearned runs in the third, with Ripecky's lead-off single getting the inning going. She scored on a wild pitch and senior CF Laura Chapman (Seattle, WA) plated another run with a sacrifice fly.

Bates (2-7) broke up the shutout in the fifth when first-year DH Monica Berube (Plaistow, NH) led off with a single. Pinch runner Vanessa Truglio (New Britain, CT) moved around the bases during the next three at-bats, scoring on a ground out by first-year CF Lauren Dobish (Champersburg, PA). Tufts ended it in the bottom of the inning, scoring three times after two were out. Tinker doubled with one out, and both she and Chapman, who walked, scored on a double error during a ground ball to first base. Tufts first-year 1B Leah Cantone (Southington, CT) eventually scored the mercy-rule run on a bloop single by senior RF Alison Drobiarz (Old Saybrook, CT).

Santone finished with a four-hitter, improving to 7-0 overall. She struck out two and did not walk a batter. Tinker was 2 for 3 with two runs and an RBI, while Drobiarz and senior LF Roni Herbst (Montclair, NJ) had three hits apiece in Tufts' 11-hit attack. Bates reliever Kristen Finn (Winthrop, MA) pitched two innings and did not allow an earned run.

The teams continue their weekend series with a double-header on Saturday starting at noon.

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