Extra inning game goes to Vanguard in season-opener for Athenas

CLAREMONT, Calif. – The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps softball team opened its 2014 season on Saturday at Athena Field with a 3-2, 10-inning loss to Vanguard. Due to extra innings in the first game of the scheduled doubleheader, the second game got called because of darkness with less than five innings complete.

Behind the pitching of junior Hayley Schultz, CMS held Vanguard scoreless for the first four innings. In the bottom of the fourth inning, CMS got a pair of runs to jump ahead 2-0 on Vanguard starter Taylor Doyle. The first run of the game for the Athenas came on a RBI single by freshman Alexa Heydenberk, the first of her Athena career. Senior Megan Latta followed with a run-scoring single to left to push the lead to 2-0.

In the top of the fifth inning, Vanguard evened the score at 2-2 on a two-run homer by Brittney Boggs. The teams remained scoreless until the top of the 10^th inning, when Taylor Wilson scored the game-winner for Vanguard on a sacrifice fly by Shelby Kuryllo. Wilson began the inning placed on second base because of the International Tie Breaker rule.

Both Heydenberk and sophomore Tara Robinson led CMS with two hits apiece. Schultz pitched seven innings and allowed eight hits and two runs with three strikeouts. Sophomore Katie Savard added a triple for CMS.

Next up for the Athenas is a doubleheader at Concordia (Calif.) on Feb. 8.

Box score: http://cmsathletics.org/sports/sball/2013-14/boxscores/20140201_ab4z.xml

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