March 7, 2011
Holy Cross Box Score
Loyola (Ill.) Box Score
KISSIMMEE, FLA.—La Salle Softball opened play at the Rebel Spring Games Monday morning. In Day one action, the Explorers were swept by Holy Cross by a score of 7-2 and to Loyola-Chicago by a count of 5-2.
(Game 1 vs. Holy Cross): Down 7-0 heading into the final frame, the Explorers’ bats generated some offense in hopes of a come-from-behind rally. La Salle got its first two hitters on base with no one out. The rally started when senior Ali Shepherd led off the inning with a base hit into center field, before classmate DJ Guinn sent a looper in to left field.
Shepherd was productive Monday morning, as she finished the first game by going 2-for-3 with a double and a single.
With two outs and runners at second and third following a passed ball, freshman Emily Moran collected two RBIs with a single into right field to narrow the gap to a 7-2 lead, which is how it would finish once Holy Cross pitcher Julia Barrett got freshman Jamie Dellinger to ground out with runners on the corners.
Moran went 2-for-3 with two singles that produced two RBIs in her second collegiate start.
In the top of the third inning with the Explorers down 3-0, Guinn came in to relieve senior picher Kristen Paoletti. Guinn finished the final 4.2 innings for the Explorers by striking out seven of the 22 batters she faced.
Freshman Megan Hodgson walked in the seventh inning to make it the fourth game out of the last five that she reached base safely at least once.
(Game 2 vs. Loyola-Chicago): La Salle seemed to pick up where it left off in Monday’s first half of the double-header when it took on the Ramblers of Loyola-Chicago.
Freshman Liz Reed got the Explorers going right out of the chute with a walk. Shepherd delivered for the Explorers with a one-out base hit to score Reed from second base after she advanced on a wild pitch.
Later in the inning with the bases loaded, freshman Emily McBride walked to force in another run, getting La Salle out to a 2-0 lead in the opening frame.
The early offense is all the Explorers manufactured against Loyola-Chicago before the Ramblers went on to score five unanswered runs.
La Salle held a 2-1 lead going into the bottom of the sixth inning, but the Ramblers got five straight hits to begin the inning, helping them produce four runs to give them the 5-2 cushion.
Guinn got five more innings of work in the loss, before Paoletti came in sixth inning to get the Explorers out of a jam.
The Explorers fall to 1-5 on the season before picking up play in the second day of the Rebel Spring Games on Tuesday when they take on Yale at 9 a.m. and Bryant at 11 a.m.
