Softball drops DH to cross town foe Williams 7-0, 11-4

Williamstown, MA- The MCLA Softball team dropped a pair of games to cross town foe Williams College this afternoon losing 7-0 in the lid lifter before falling 11-4 in the nightcap.  With the wins, the Ephs improve to 24-7 on the season.  MCLA is now 11-15 overall heading into an important weekend matchup with Bridgewater State.

In the opener, the Ephs got on the board in the second inning when Brenna Martinez homered to left field off of MCLA starter Rachel Quackenbush.  The score would remain that way until Williams collected two more runs in the fourth and three in the fifth to put the game out of reach.

In the fourth, Eph starting pitcher Mackenzie Murphy singled and stole second to lead off.  She would come around to score on Margo Beck's single making it 2-0.  Pinch runner Kristina Alvarado would come around to score the second run of the inning on a Trailblazer error.

Williams put the game out of reach in the fifth off MCLA reliever Kate Henault.  Casey Pelz had a two run single to highlight the inning and another run scored on another error making it 6-0 in favor of the hosts.  Williams added the final run in the seventh on Erica Li's RBI knock.

The Ephs outhit MCLA 11-4 and made a winner out of freshman hurler Mackenzie Murphy, who went the first five innings and struck out 8 batters.

Quackenbush was tagged with the loss going four innings and notching 6 K's.

In game two, Williams jumped ahead 4-0 after putting up the runs in the bottom of the third inning off Henault.  They scored four runs on four hits and an error.  Kacey Cramer had an RBI double as did Melissa Cendejas for the key hits.

MCLA would quickly answer with four runs of their own in the top of the fourth.  They would parlay five hits and three Eph miscues into four runs to tie the game.  Katie Berghela had a two run double to cap the inning for the Trailblazers.  Fran Belli also had an RBI single in the inning.

Williams took the lead for good with four runs in the fifth inning.  Lexi Curt started the rally with a double to left center driving in a pair of runs while Cendejas added another RBI two bagger.

The Ephs piled on three more runs in the sixth with Cendejas once again collecting an RBI hit.

Cendejas had three hits and three RBI for the winners while Alejandra Magana earned the win tossing an inning and a third.  

For MCLA, they were paced by Abby Lucas' two hits.  Henault absorbed the loss going the first 5.2 innings for the Trailblazers.

MCLA will host BSU on Saturday at 1pm with both teams entering at 5-3 in conference play.