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Lauren Richards allowed two hits in seven innings to get the win in the opener.
Lauren Richards allowed two hits in seven innings to get the win in the opener.

CMS Softball Allows Only Five Combined Hits in 2-1, 8-0 Sweep of Saint Katherine

CLAREMONT, Calif. - Sophomore Lauren Richards threw a complete-game two-hitter in the opener and first-year Heather Shipley tossed a three-hit, five-inning shutout in the nightcap, as the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps softball team took two in a Friday home doubleheader with Saint Katherine on Friday.

Sophomore pinch-hitter Jordan Bassett broke a 1-1 tie in the sixth inning of the opener with a deep sacrifice fly to left in the opener for CMS, while the Athenas played seven runs in the fifth of the nightcap to break it open and enforce the eight-run rule. With the sweep, CMS improves to 5-4 on the young season, while Saint Katherine slips to 8-16. 

The Athenas needed to come back in the opener after the Firebirds took a 1-0 lead in the third. With two outs in the bottom half, Richards helped her own cause with a triple down the right field line, and junior designated player Megan Perron followed with an RBI double down the left field line to tie the score. 

Richards settled into a solid groove in the circle, retiring 10 straight batters at one point to keep the game 1-1. In the sixth, Perron drew a walk and yielded to pinch-runner Ari Livi. Junior catcher Maddie Valdez followed with a single to send Livi to third, and Bassett drove one deep down the left field line that was caught, but Livi was able to trot home easily from third with the go-ahead run.

Richards finished off her win with a 1-2-3 seventh, ending with nine strikeouts on the day and only two hits. CMS had only four hits in the opener as well, but the back-to-back extra base hits from Richards and Perron, and the single from Valdez in the sixth were enough to get the win. 

The nightcap saw a pitchers' duel for a while before CMS broke it open. Junior second baseman Jessica Fox had a two-out RBI single to score junior center fielder Kawai Scanlan after Scanlan reached on an error and stole second. In the fifth, the Athenas scored seven times, with Perron and Valdez starting it with two straight RBI singles, followed by a Scanlan squeeze play to make it 4-0. 

Fox added her second RBI single, and after an error kept the inning alive, sophomore Natalie Dale had an RBI single to make the score 7-0. Sophomore first baseman Ananya Koneti then drove one to the wall to score Dale from third with the final run of the game, making the final score 8-0. 

Fox was 2-for-2 in the nightcap with two RBI, while Richards was 2-for-3. Shipley allowed three hits and struck out three to get the win in the circle, improving to 2-2 on the season. She has now had 10 shutout innings in a row with only five hits, after allowing two hits in five innings to get the win in relief on Sunday against Pacific Lutheran. 

CMS will be back in action tomorrow for an 11:30 a.m. doubleheader against Linfield (weather permitting).