CMS Softball Wins Three Straight to Close Out Tucson Invitational

TUCSON, Ariz. – The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps softball team had its bats erupt as it closed out play at the Tucson Invitational with a 16-0, five-inning win over Sewanee on Wednesday morning at Lincoln Park

CMS finished the Tucson Invitational three wins in a row, after also defeating Dickinson in five innings 10-2 on Tuesday morning and adding a 4-0 win over Central (Iowa) on Tuesday afternoon. With the wins, CMS moves to 7-4 on the season, including 4-1 at the Tucson Invitational, after opening on Monday with a split, defeating Wisconsin-La Crosse 3-1 and then falling to Eastern Connecticut 5-3.

In the Sewanee contest on Wednesday morning, Giselle Lai had a double in the first inning and came around to score the first run. Maya Loper led off the second with a double, and after two walks, Kaili Aqui drove in a pair with a single to center to push the lead to 3-0. Lai and Madison Gonzalez added RBI as the Athenas took a 5-0 advantage after two.

CMS then broke it wide open with an eight-run third. Sarah Loper started things with a double and came home on an RBI double from Paige Zimmerman. Rachel Sapirstein followed with a RBI single, and Sophia Nguyen and Aqui put down two straight bunt singles to load the bases. Emma Suh had an RBI single, Megan Kho had an RBI fielder's choice, and Abby Thompson had a two-run single, before Sarah Loper's sacrifice fly gave Sewanee its first out of the inning, while plating the eighth run.

The Athenas kept the offense rolling in the fourth, as Ana Federico singled and Nguyen walked to load the bases with nobody out. One out later, Kho hit a two-run double down the right-field line to extend the lead. Ellie Novogradac tacked on a run with a sacrifice fly. 

Maya Loper and Hannah Adams combined on a one-hitter with 10 strikeouts, with Loper throwing the first three innings without allowing a hit, striking out six, and Adams closing out with two innings of shutout relief, retiring the final batters by strikeout with two runners on to finish with 

In the win over Dickinson on Tuesday, Lai was 3-for-3 with four RBI and Ella Yerkes allowed no earned runs over three innings of work to get her first collegiate pitching win.  

CMS scored five times in the second to break open a 2-2 tie, keyed by an RBI triple from Sapirstein and a three-run triple from Lai. In the first, Lai had an RBI single and Thompson hit an RBI double to put CMS ahead 2-0, before Dickinson tied it in the top of the second. Destiny Garcia had an RBI single in the bottom of the fifth to plate Aqui with a run to make it 10-2 and enforce the eight-run rule. Aqui, Thompson and Sapirstein each finished 2-for-3 at the plate, while Jade Johnson threw two innings of shutout relief.

Johnson kept going in the second game and threw five more shutout innings to get the win against Central, allowing four hits and walking none while striking out three. Maya Weigel-Murphy threw the final two innings, both of the 1-2-3 variety, to combine on the shutout.

Sapirstein was 3-for-3 at the plate against Central, including an RBI triple to open the scoring in the second. Lai had a sacrifice fly in the fifth, and Paige Zimmerman hit a solo homer in the sixth.

CMS will have nine days off before it returns to action with a road game at La Verne on March 22, beginning a busy stretch of 12 games in eight days (six SCIAC contests, and three non-league doubleheaders).