SOFTBALL GAINS SPLIT WITH HUNTER IN CUNYAC PLAY

The College of Staten Island women’s softball team was able to draw a split with CUNYAC-rival Hunter College on Monday, taking a 9-1 win before falling 11-10, in 9 frames in the second game, in a doubleheader played at Randall’s Island.  The split gave CSI a 6-10 overall record and moved the Dolphins to 3-1 in conference play while the Hawks’ records went to 11-13, 7-1, respectively.

CSI led from start to finish in the opener, giving starter Danielle Ponsiglione a 3-0 edge at the end of the top half of the first inning.  A Stefanie Solari single scored Brittany Smith for the game’s first run, and with two outs, a Catherine Ebro double to right field scored both Solari and Ponsiglione, who had a single in the four-hit inning.  Hunter chipped away with a run in the bottom of the third on a Crissette Maxwell RBI-triple, but CSI got the run back in the top of the fourth via a Kristi Dillon RBI-single that scored Victoria Procopio, who doubled to start the inning off of HC starter Angel Iacovetti.

Although CSI did not need the insurance, the Dolphins added a run in the sixth and four more in the seventh.  Another Dillon hit did the honors in the sixth.  In the seventh, a bases-clearing three-RBI double by Amanda D’Amato served as the punctuation mark.

CSI out-hit HC in the opener, 12-5, as Dillon, Smith, Ponsiglione and Solari each tallied two hits.  Ponsiglione grabbed the win, going seven full innings, giving up the lone earned run while fanning four.  Iacovetti took the loss allowing eight earned runs, walking three and fanning a pair.  Josephine Estevez finished 2-2 with a walk.

In the exhilarating second game, CSI was able to muster a valiant comeback before succumbing to the Hawks in extra frames.  The Dolphins grabbed a 2-0 lead, aided by a HC error that allowed both Ponsiglione and Procopio to score unearned runs off of HC starter Amanda Annicaro.  Despite being down, the Hawks erupted for six runs in their second inning to grab a 6-2 lead off of CSI starter Solari, who struggled to find the strike zone and walked four batters in the inning.  A Sophia Ponce two-RBI single to centerfield was the highlight of the frame.

CSI responded with a three-run, four-hit, third inning to get nearly even at 6-5, and after Hunter scored a run in the fourth to make it 7-5, CSI responded yet again with two runs in the fifth to tie the score at 7-7.  Solari helped her own cause this time, stroking a lead-off homerun to left-centerfield.  But the intensity wasn’t finished there.  In the bottom of the sixth inning, Hunter again went up by a deuce, guided by a bases-loaded, two-RBI Meghan O’Shea single.

Down to their final three outs, the Dolphins countered again.  An Ebro leadoff single chased Annicaro in favor of Iacovetti in the circle, and CSI followed with a Samantha Tallerine single and a Christine DeCarlo walk to load the bags with one out.  A great play at the plate got Ebro out at home in the next at-bat and CSI was down to their final out.  D’Amato continued her solid day with an RBI single to right field, scoring Tallerine and cutting the lead to 9-8.  Then up stepped Kaitlyn Flynn, and the senior smacked an RBI single that scored DeCarlo.  Unfortunately for the Dolphins, however, Flynn was called out on the play when she interfered on her way around first, ending the frame but not before CSI tied it at 9-9.

After a scoreless eighth inning, the game moved to the ninth with the international tie-breaker rule in effect.  CSI then took their first lead of the game when, with Procopio at third base, a Hunter error by Bauer scored Procopio. 

The game had time for one more comeback, but this time it was the Hawks who delivered.  A McGoldric RBI-double, scored Jaime, who started the inning at second base.  Then CSI, which had committed just one lone error through the first 15 innings, saw consecutive errors during the next two at-bats which first moved McGoldric to third and then home to give Hunter the walk-off win.

Despite the loss, CSI out-hit Hunter, 18-10, getting three hits each from D’Amato, Solari and Tallerine.  Iacovetti earned the win with three innings of relief work, giving up a lone earned run on three hits. Solari took the loss.

CSI is back in action on Tuesday, hosting SUNY-Old Westbury for a non-conference doubleheader beginning at 5pm at the CSI Softball Complex.