March 5, 2008
Box Score
KISSIMMEE, FL- On their final day of action at the Rebel Spring Games, the La Salle softball squad (2-4, 0-0 A-10) split falling 3-2 in extra innings to Valparaiso, and then knocking out Sacred Heart University 8-4. The Explorers will jet directly to the University of Arizona next to face off against the defending national champion Arizona Wildcats, and the Creighton Bluejays beginning on Friday, March 7th.
The Explorers took a commanding 2-1 lead over the Valparaiso Crusaders in the fourth inning as senior catcher Michelle Sullivan (Gibbstown, NJ/ Paulsboro) singled up the middle to score both freshman Ali Shepherd (Philadelphia, PA/ Creative & Performing Arts) and sophomore pitcher Gina Massaro (Havertown, PA/ Hartford).
The Crusaders tied it up 2-2 in the bottom of the fifth, and the game went into an international tie-breaker in the eighth inning. The Explorers had no answer as the Crusaders singled in the winning run for a 3-2 extra-innings victory over La Salle. Explorer pitcher Massaro (0-2) suffered her second 3-2, eight-inning loss in two days.
In the second game, six Explorers singled to spark the offense against the Sacred Heart Pioneers. Sophomore Mary Pat Conville (Jamison, PA/ Archbishop Wood) singled in the first to score freshman Shepherd, sophomore Angelina Bisbiglia (Sewell, NJ/ Camden Catholic) followed suit with a single to score Massaro, and senior Sullivan tripled down the right field line to knock in another two runs. Junior Danielle Signorelli (Jenkintown, PA/ St. Basil) singled in Sullivan to end the scoring for the inning up 5-0.
The Pioneers responded with two runs in the first, but the Explorers scored three more to take an 8-2 lead in the fifth as Signorelli doubled and sophomore pitcher Laura Beth McCreesh (Philadelphia, PA/ St. Basil) brought in a run. Massaro singled in two more for La Salle. Sophomore transfer Kelli Surdi (Howard Beach, NY/ Archbishop Molloy) had her first collegiate hit as an Explorer, facing her former teammates at Sacred Heart.
The Pioneers scored one more run in the fifth, and freshman pitcher Kristin Paoletti (Aldan, PA/ Archbishop Prendergast) walked in a runner as she came in relief in the sixth, but that would be all the offense Sacred Heart could manage as La Salle got ended their Florida trip with two wins, four losses.
La Salle's Sullivan went 2-4 with a triple and two RBI's, and Massaro went 3-4 with two RBI's for the Explorers against Sacred Heart. McCreesh (2-0) got the win for La Salle on the rubber.
