Game One Box Score
Game Two Box Score
Staten Island, NY – A walk-off double by Ashley Olsen (Staten Island, NY) lifted the Wagner College softball team to its first conference victory in an epic 15-inning event, before dropping the back end of the day's doubleheader against Quinnipiac.
The Bobcats Jordan Paolucci opened up the days scoring in the top of the second, belting a solo shot over the centerfield fence to lead off the inning. Quinnipiac would produce another run in the second as two costly Seahawk errors allowed the visitors to take an early 2-0 lead.
Wagner had the bases loaded in their next at bats after both Brittany Huss (Anthem, AZ) and Jamie El-Aazami (Houston, TX) earned walks and Alyssa McCulloch (East Brunswick, NJ) was hit by a pitch. Bobcats pitcher Mina Duffy kept her team ahead getting Hailey Corthell (Reno, NV) to strikeout swinging to end any scoring threat.
Both Duffy and Wagner hurler, Judy Betz (Ashburn, VA), went on a steady scoreless run, allowing a combined seven hits, but no runs until the Seahawks got on the board in bottom of the fifth. Senior Amanda Garcia (Fresno, CA) kicked off the inning extending her hit streak to four games with a rope single to centerfield. Laura Hennig (Dyer, IN), who followed Garcia reaching base on a hard fought walk, would record the Seahawks first run of the day after Duffy walked El-Aazami with the bases loaded, scoring Hennig from third.
In their next plate appearances, the Green and White tied the game as an error on the Bobcat shortstop put Taylor Rauscher (Peoria, AZ) with one out. Garcia, again would prove to be the difference maker, blasting a double to the centerfield wall that scored Rauscher from first and evened the game at two apiece.
With Betz retiring the first three she faced in the top of the seventh inning, the Seahawks would have the last at bats to try and get the win. MacKenzie Alfaro (Riverside, CA), tallied her first hit of the day on a single through the middle, but the freshman would be held at first as Heather Schwartzburg would come in to take over the circle for the Bobcats and strikeout the next two to send the game into extra-innings.
Betz and Schwartzburg threw near flawless eighth and ninth innings, as the teams readied for the 10th inning and the activation of the international run rule, putting one player on second base to start the offensive inning.
Quinnipiac started off the 10th, executing a sacrifice bunt to advance Lauren Salgado to third base, before an infield error helped the Bobcat cross the plate and put the pressure on the Wagner bats.
In the bottom half, the Seahawks matched their opponent with an Alfaro sac bunt, that advanced Huss to third. Schwartzburg's wild pitch on an El-Aazami at bat, scored Huss and kept the game moving into the 11th inning.
As both defenses helped their pitchers, both Schwartzburg and Betz gave up just one combined hit through four innings of work, until the bottom of the 15th. With Hennig placed on second base to start the inning, Olsen stepped up to the plate and blistered a ball down the left field line that was deep enough to score Hennig and cap off a four-hour long game and give Wagner its first conference win of the year.
Game two went the way of the Bobcats, as the visitors jumped out to an early, commanding lead, scoring seven runs on six hits and two errors in the first three innings.
Defensively, Quinnipiac held the Seahawks hitless through the three, before Kristen Matteoni (Reno, NV) singled through the left side to break up the no-hitter.
Wagner's lone run would come in the bottom of the fifth inning, when Ashley Rollins (Fairfax, VA) would help her own cause with a single to left field. The freshman would later score on an infield error, but the Seahawks couldn't come back from an 11-1 deficit, as the home team dropped the nightcap to the Bobcats in six innings.
With the split, Wagner moved to 3-21 on the year and 1-7 in conference play. Rollins was credited with her third loss of the year in game two, while Betz earned her second win of the season in the marathon game one.
Wagner will host Mount St. Mary's tomorrow in another key conference doubleheader at Wagner Field, beginning at noon.
