May 3, 2009
Box Score
PHILADELPHIA - Gina Massaro singled in the winning run in the top of the ninth inning of an offensive battle as the Explorers won 7-6 in the second game of a doubleheader at Rhode Island on Sunday. The Rams won the first game 6-3. Both teams concluded their seasons as the Explorers finished 9-29 overall, 7-13 in the Atlantic 10, while the Rams finished 14-37 overall and 3-17 in league play.
The second game marked the Explorers' most productive offense of the season as they banged out a season-high 17 hits. Each player who got an at-bat registered at least one hit. Gina Massaro and Alicia Dela Rosa led the onslaught as each went 3-for-6, while Erica Vile, DJ Guinn, Laura Gallagher and Rebecca Turygan added two apiece.
With the second game locked at two runs apiece after the regular seven innings, both squads exploded offensively. The Explorers spotted themselves what would be assumed to be a comfortable lead as they scored four in the top of the eighth. Guinn drew a lead-off walk and Angelina Bisbiglia singled to put runners at first and second. Shannon Skomorucha loaded the bases with a single to center, and pinch runner Kristen Paoletti and Bisbiglia scored on the next batter when Laura Gallagher blasted a two-RBI shot to right center.
Turygan smacked one of her two hits in the game, a single past the shortstop, to load the bases again. After an out, Dela Rosa hit to left field to score Skomorucha for the inning's third run. Gallagher came home for the fourth run on a sacrifice fly by Mary Pat Conville.
With the Explorers enjoying a 6-2 lead, the Rams pulled out all the stops to not end their season on that note. They scored four runs to tie up the game again on a hit-by-pitch, two-run home run by Nicole Massoni, a walk followed by a Stefani Poedubicky triple and a sac fly.
Guinn singled to lead off the top of the ninth, but Ram pitcher Odalys Torres quickly recorded two strikeouts. With two outs on the board, the Explorers strung together three hits by Gallagher, Turygan and Massaro to score the winning run. A 1-2-3 defensive effort in the bottom of the ninth sealed the win.
Guinn earned the win in the pitcher's circle after hurling 8.2 innings, giving up three runs on seven hits, walking two and striking out six. Torres suffered the loss for the Rams after going 3.2 innings in relief of starter Stacey Stanovich. Torres gave up five runs on 11 hits, walked one and struck out three. Stanovich worked 5.1 innings, gave up two runs on six hits, walked two and struck out one.
The Explorers quickly put three runs on the board in the first inning of game one, but the Rams chipped away at their deficit and eventually won 6-3. Ali Shepherd led off the game with a single to center and advanced to second on a Conville sac bunt. Vile drew a walk to put two runners on base, and Guinn followed up with a blast over the left field fence for her second home run of the season.
The Rams scored one in the second and tied it up in the third on a two-run home run by Melissa Wilson. They added two more in the fourth and one in the fifth for the 6-3 score, while limiting the Explorers to just three scattered hits after the first inning.
Massaro suffered the loss in the first game. She pitched 2.1 innigs, gave up three runs - one earned - on two hits, walked two and struck out three. Guinn threw 3.2 innings of relief and gave up three runs - one earned - on five hits, walked none and struck out six. The Rams' Alison Hartzell earned the win after a complete game effort. She gave up three runs, all earned, on five hits, walked three and struck out five.
