By Rob Ciambra, QBSN Staff Writer
It was a cold and windy afternoon in Hamden as the Farleigh Dickinson Knights and the Quinnipiac Bobcats took to the softball field at Quinnipiac for a doubleheader matchup.
In the first game, the Knights lit up Sydney Robey and the Bobcat fielders in the first inning, getting five runs on four hits. They also took advantage of three Bobcat errors.
Madelaine Wilen led off the game with a double down the left field foul line. Julia Northcutt then laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance Wilen to third base. Robey committed an error on the throw to first base, allowing Wilen to score.
Mikayla Fernandez followed up with a long, two-run home run to deep left-center field, increasing the Knights’ early lead to 3-0.
The Bobcats’ only run of game one came in the bottom of the third inning when Courtney Solt singled and advanced to second base on an error. She advanced to third base on a passed ball. Lauren Salgado walked, and proceeded to steal second base. The Knights’ shortstop, Courtney Slye, could not handle the throw and the ball got away from her. On the error, Salgado advanced to third, and Solt scored.
The Knights tacked on two more runs in the game, including a solo home run by Angelique Nieves in the top of the seventh inning off of Robey. Sydney Robey was taken out of the game after the home run and replaced by Katie Alfiere, who gave up a hit and walked one Knight, but struck out two.
The Bobcats put two runners on base in the bottom of the seventh inning, but could not take advantage of the situation to create a rally, and game one came to a close, with the Knights winning 7-1.
Game two was a fast and exciting pitchers’ duel between FDU’s Samantha Lemm and Quinnipiac’s Hannah Lindsley. Lindsley gave up three hits, walked three, and stuck out four in eight innings. Lemm also handcuffed the Bobcats, giving up three hits, walking five, and striking out six before the eighth inning. The majority of Lemm’s walks were intentional, called by the FDU coach.
In the seventh inning, the Bobcats threatened to walk-off without having to go into extra innings. Dani Edmands singled and advanced to second on a passed ball. After a bunt and a couple of intentional walks, Lauren Salgado came to bat. She sent a rocket right at the Knights’ center fielder, Northcutt, who gunned down Figmic on the tag-up.
The game went into an extra inning after no one could score in seven. In the bottom of that eighth inning, Courtney Solt led off with a clutch triple to left center field that gave the Bobcats the winning run 60 feet away.
The next batters, Alex Alba and Nikki Barba, were both intentionally walked. That brought up the Bobcat catcher, Jordan Paolucci.
Down quickly in the count with no balls and two strikes, including a third pitch fouled off, Paolucci drove the next pitch out to deep right-center field, and everyone knew the second she hit it that it wasn’t coming back.
Paolucci ended the scoreless pitchers’ duel and extra-inning game with a walk-off grand slam.
“I got real angry [when Lemm intentionally walked Alba and Barba] with the bases loaded in extra innings and I thought, ‘I’m not going to let you get off this easy,’” Paolucci said. “I was never worried, I knew she was going to put one over the plate.”
After the game, Coach Germaine Fairchild spoke about splitting the doubleheader.
“It’s always good to win the second game,” Fairchild said. “It tends to send you home with a bit of a better feeling after.”
Quinnipiac has two more doubleheaders on April 27 and 28 at Bryant and home versus Central Connecticut State, respectively.
