The Hamilton College softball team wrapped up its NESCAC West Division schedule at Williams College on Saturday afternoon. The Ephs, who won the division, swept the doubleheader 7-3 and 3-2.
Game one box score | Game two box score
The Continentals (13-17, 5-7 NESCAC West) set a program record with the five West Division wins. Williams received votes in this week's Division III Top 25 coaches poll.
The Ephs (26-5, 10-2) scored three times in their last two at-bats in the opener to pull away from a one-run game. In game two Williams erased two one-run deficits, going ahead for good with a pair of fourth-inning runs.
In game one the Continentals hit a pair of fourth-inning home runs to pull to within a run after Williams had opened up a 4-0 advantage.
Daphne Assimakopoulos ’17 led off the fourth with her second home run of the spring and after Ellie Kiernan ’15 singled, Zoe Singer ’18 followed with a two-run home run. Assimakopoulos finished with two hits.
The Ephs sealed the win with three runs over the fifth and sixth innings. Lexi Curt ’18 homered with one out in the fifth and Alison Michalik ’17 and Mo Frank ’15 hit run-scoring singles in the sixth.
Taylor Donze ’16 singled in Michalik, who had led off the first inning with a single, to put the hosts up 1-0.
The Ephs scored an unearned run in the second and pushed their lead to 4-0 when Kacey Cramer ’18 hit a two-run home run in the fourth.
Brooke Bovier ’17 earned the win with a complete-game five hitter. She struck out seven Continentals to improve to 14-3.
In the nightcap Hamilton took one-run leads in the first and third innings. Singer singled in Olivia Gozdz ’16 to put the Continentals on the scoreboard in the first. Two innings later, Hannah Staab ’17 led off with a double then came home on a single by Assimakopoulos.
Williams rallied in the fourth, taking the lead on a two-out, two-run single by Michalik.
The Continentals put three runners in scoring position over their final two at-bats. Kelly Leonard ’15 led off the sixth with a double and moved to third base one out later on a single by Julie Carpenter ’18. Carpenter stole second with two outs but the Ephs turned a sharp line drive into the inning’s final out.
Gozdz led off the seventh with her 14th double of the year – breaking the team's single-season record. Emma Harrington ’15, who earned the win with 3.2 innings of three-hit shutout relief, retired the last three hitters after Gozdz's double.
Gozdz, Assimakopoulos, Singer and Carpenter each had a pair of hits.
Hamilton finishes the 2015 season on Tuesday, April 28, with a non-league doubleheader at Skidmore College.
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