CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps softball team swept a pair of one-run games from Whittier on Saturday at Athena Field, winning the opener 3-2 and then scoring twice in the seventh inning for a 4-3 win in the nightcap.
The wins improve the Athenas record to 17-15 on the season and 10-5 in the SCIAC, after taking all three from a Poets team that came into the weekend with a 6-3 mark in SCIAC, all three by one run after a 2-1 win in the series opener yesterday.
In the nightcap, CMS fell behind 3-1 in the top of the sixth, but got one of the runs back in the bottom half when Paige Zimmerman singled and stole second, making her 3-for-3 with three stolen bases on the day, and came home on an RBI groundout from Emily Nutting.
In the bottom of the seventh, Ananya Koneti started things off with a clutch single the opposite way, and Ellie Novogradac put down a perfect sacrifice bunt. An error put runners on first and third, and Ashleigh Adkins stole second to put two runners in scoring position. Emma Suh then chopped a grounder to shortstop to tie the game up, and it turned into the winning play when the throw got awry and Adkins was able to race home from second with a walk-off win to make the final score 4-3.
Whittier took a 1-0 lead, but Zimmerman had her second single, and her second stolen base, before coming home on an RBI single from Destiny Garcia in the fourth. Garcia and Koneti were each 2-for-3 in the nightcap, to go along with Zimmerman's 3-for-3 effort, while Jade Johnson went the distance in the circle.
In the opening game of the twinbill, Abby Thompson went 2-for-3 with two RBI to build off her game-winning two-run double in the sixth inning of Friday's 2-1 win. After the Poets went ahead 1-0 in the first, Thompson tied the score with an RBI triple to score Zimmerman, and then came home on an RBI single from Nutting. Thompson then tacked on an RBI single in the third to score Lauren Richards, who went the distance in the circle for her second win in as many days.
CMS will have a key three-game series with Chapman coming up this weekend, featuring a road game on Friday and a home doubleheader on Saturday.
