Philadelphia, PA-The La Salle University softball team split a pair of high-scoring games with Monmouth University this afternoon at Good Shepherd Field.  They won the first, 7-6, and lost the second, 10-8. 

 

In the opener, the Explorers (5-21-1) jumped out to a 7-0 lead by the third inning.  Sophomore Laura DeZolt (Morrisville, PA/Conwell Egan) keyed the charge with a three-run homer to right-center in the bottom of the second.  DeZolt also pitched all seven innings and picked up her second victory of year.

 

The game came down to the final out when DeZolt needed a strikeout, her eighth, to escape a bases-loaded jam after her lead had eroded to one. 

 

Both Katie Bongiovanni (Manchester, NJ/Manchester Twp.) and Kathy Hennessey (Sparta, NJ/Sparta) finished the game 2-2 with a walk. Vinnie Caputo (Saratoga Springs, NY/Saratoga Springs) also had two hits and an RBI.   

 

In the second game, Monmouth (18-7) was the one to strike early, building a 6-0 lead by the second inning.  However, La Salle countered with eight consecutive runs (four in the fourth, four in the fifth) to briefly take an 8-6 lead.  That rally featured three homeruns by the Explorers, the first a three-run shot by pitcher Carissa Segura (Santa Maria, CA/Ernest Righetti) to dead center.  After the fence was re-assembled, Bongiovanni then sent the Monmouth center fielder through the same portion of the wall several pitches later with her first homer of the year.  The next inning, DeZolt hammered her second three-run shot of the afternoon.

 

But Monmouth answered with three runs in the top of the sixth to quickly regain the lead.  They added an insurance run in the seventh and La Salle was unable to summon another comeback.