The College of Staten Island women’s softball squad got back on the diamond this afternoon, scoring a doubleheader split with Old Westbury on the road as part of non-conference play. CSI won the opener, 9-1, before OW scored a 3-1 win in the second game. With the split, CSI improved to 10-7 overall, while the Panthers lifted to 8-13.
In the opener, CSI ripped open a rather even game with six runs in the final inning, scoring a 9-1 victory. The first three innings were scoreless both ways, as CSI’s Jacqueline Cautela and OW’s Nicole DeCola locked horns in the circle. The squads only had two runners on base through the first three innings before scoring followed in the fourth. CSI registered first on a Victoria Procopio fielder’s choice scored Brittany smith, who singled to start the inning and then took third on a Stefanie Solari single. Old Westbury countered with a run in their half of the inning on a Corrine Protasiewicz single that scored Jennifer Jean, who tripled in the inning.
From there, however, it was all CSI in the scoring column. The Dolphins took the lead for good in the fifth inning. Cautela helped her own cause by singling home Maxine Jasko, who also had a single and was advanced by two consecutive sacrifices. In the sixth, CSI scored again to make it 3-1, before blowing the game open in the seventh.
The first two CSI runs scored via error. Christina Tufano then chased home Solari to make it 6-1. Jennie Hosty’s RBI-double followed, as did an RBI-single by Christina DeCarlo and Jasko. Up by a 9-1 score, Cautela got the Panthers down 1-2-3 in the bottom half of the inning to garner the complete game win. Cautela allowed bust five hits, fanning seven. CSI out-hit OW, 15-3, with Jasko and Tufano posting three hits apiece.
The Panthers got even, however, in the second half of the doubleheader. In a carbon copy of the opener, the first three innings went into the books scoreless, with CSI’s Alexandra Conanan going pitch-for-pitch with Emily McKay. CSI then scored first blood. With two outs, Danielle Locke scored an infield single and then Jasko followed with another single. Jasko continued to round the base, and as the Panthers attempted to nail Jasko out, Locke took third base and then came in to score before OW finally got Jasko out. With that, CSI had a 1-0 lead.
That lead lasted till the fifth, when Conanan then got into trouble in the circle. With two outs, Jean scorched a RBI-single to score Gabriella Valdes, and then later, with Jean and Delana Murray on base, Alexis Ferrero hit the biggest shot of the game, a single that scored both runs to give OW the 3-1 lead.
CSI had their chances in the final two innings. In the sixth, the Dolphins would leave the bases-loaded, squandering a two-out rally. In the final inning, CSI had the game-tying run at the plate after a leadoff double by Jackie DiBello, but could not squeeze out the run against OW closer DeCola, who had started the opening game as well. CSI out-hit OW, 9-8. Smith, Tufano, and Locke all had two hits in the second game.
CSI is back in action tomorrow afternoon. The team will face Hunter College for a CUNYAC doubleheader starting at 2pm. The games will take place on the campus of Queens College.
