Teams: Softball: Schedule & Results

COLLEGE SOFTBALL FINAL SCORES
Tufts 13, Babson 1  (5 inn.)
Tufts 8, Babson 0  (5 inn.)

At Babson Park, MA
Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Game 1 Box Score

Game 2 Box Score

Sam Kuhles was 5 for 5 with four runs scored and three RBI in the two games

BABSON PARK -- The 8th ranked Tufts University softball team improved to 29-0 with two more five-inning victories on Wednesday afternoon at Babson College. The Jumbos unleashed a 17-hit attack in a 13-1 game one victory. In the second game, pitchers Lauren Gelmetti (Westfield, NJ) and Stefanie Tong (Burlingame, CA) combined on a two-hitter for an 8-0 win.

Tufts got started right away in the first game, scoring three runs in the first. Senior catcher Cara Hovhanessian (Farmington, CT) blasted a two-run home run. The Jumbos added a single run in the second when senior 3B Sam Kuhles (Somerville, NJ) led off with a single, was sacrificed to second, stole third and scored on a sac fly by first-year LF Lena Cantone (Southington, CT).

Meanwhie, Tufts starter Izzie Santone (Madison, CT) shut out the Beavers in the first three innings. Babson First-year 3B Jessica Pashos had a single in the first that put runners on first and second with one out. The Jumbos got out of the inning with a 6-4-3 double play. In the third, Babson first-year 1B Rebecca Fellows singled and moved to second with one out, but Santone left her there.

The Jumbos broke the game open with five doubles leading to eight runs in the fourth. Senior 2B Danielle Lopez (Danvers, MA), Kuhles and Cantone all hit two-run doubles. Senior RF Maya Ripecky (Chicago, IL) and junior 1B Christy Tinker (Woodbride, CT) had back-to-back RBI doubles and scored. Tufts sent 13 hitters to the plate and led 12-0 when it was over.

Babson got on the scoreboard in the fourth. First-year catcher Nicole Latini led off with a double to right field and later scored on a single to left by junior 2B Brittney Russo. Tufts ended the inning with a 5-4-3 double play. Tinker added a solo home run in the top of the fifth, and then Santone struck out the side in the fifth. She improved to 14-0, allowing four hits and the one run while striking out three.

Cantone (2 for 3, 3 RBI), Hovhanessian (2 for 4, 2 RBI), Ripecky (2 for 3, 2 runs), Tinker (3 for 4, 3 RBI, 2 runs) and Kuhles (3 for 3, 3 runs, 2 RBI) all had multiple crooked numbers for Tufts.

Tufts scored four in the first inning of game two, and Hovhanessian was again the catalyst. She hit a two-run double in the inning. The Jumbos scored three more in the second (two unearned), with Ripecky plating one with a double to left. Tufts went up 8-0 in the third when junior SS Casey Sullivan (Berlin, CT) led off with a double, advanced on a Babson error and scored on a sac fly by Kuhles.

However, the pitching was the story in the nigh cap. Gelmetti, who came one out away from a no-hitter at Trinity on April 4, allowed just two hits in four innings against the Beavers. The first was an infield single by senior LF Courtney Thurston to start the third and the second was a one-out single by Pashos that put runners on second and third later in the inning. However, Gelmetti got a strike out and a ground out to end the inning. After a 1-2-3 fourth by Gelmetti, Tong came on for the fifth and got three ground balls to finish off the win. Gelmetti is now 12-0 on the year.

Ripecky went 3 for 3 with two RBI and a run to lead Tufts' 10-hit attack in game two. Kuhles also had two hits while scoring and driving home a run.

Tufts, which has already clinched the NESCAC East pennant and will host the conference tournament at Spicer Field May 1-3, plays three divisional games at Bowdoin this weekend beginning on Friday (Apr. 17). Babson (16-18) hosts a pair against cross-town rival Brandeis on Friday.

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