The Suffolk University Softball team won a thrilling 11-inning affair, 8-6 in game two of their Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) double header on Saturday to earn a split in the two games.
Sophomore Brooke Hirschfeld (Winchester, Mass.) went all 11 innings on the mound in game two striking out 10, while only allowing two earned runs to help lead the Rams to victory.
The Rams broke out for three runs in the top of the eleventh, taking advantage of two Norwich errors. Junior Jacky Swift (Cranston, R.I.) put the Rams up, 6-5 driving in a run with a fielder’s choice, and then scored what would be the game-deciding run later in the inning as she stole home. Junior Monica Cioffi (East Boston, Mass.) drove in a run later in the inning with a fielder’s choice to make it, 8-5.
Norwich added a run in the bottom half of the inning, and would bring the tying run to the plate with two outs, but Hirschfeld ended the game fittingly with her tenth strike out of the day.
Sophomore Karina Bolster (Carlisle, Penn.) finished the game 2-for-6, with a double and a triple driving in three runs. Freshman Scarlett Tamburro (Weston, Mass.) also had a pair of hits for Suffolk who posted 11 on the day as a team.
The game was 1-1 after seven innings and both teams went back and forth for the next four innings. Bolster’s double in the eighth would give the Rams a two-run cushion that they were unable to preserve. The Rams would add runs in each of the next two innings with the Cadets answering, until Suffolk final put together a big inning in the eleventh.
Game one, was not as wild as game two as Norwich held on to a 3-2 victory. The Rams were only held to five hits as Norwich’s Mackenzie Pratt picked up her second win of the year.
Sophomore Liz Galvin (Medway, Mass.) was the hard-luck loser for the Rams scattering seven hits through six innings for Suffolk. Junior Clara Conklin (Haverhill, N.H.) had a pair of hits in game one with an RBI.
The Rams open up a busy week on Monday as they host Rivier College in a GNAC Double Header beginning at 3:00pm at Popoulo Field in the North End. The Rams will be in action in five of the next six upcoming days.