STANDISH, ME-Saint Joseph's College and University of Southern Maine split the wins on Wednesday afternoon in Gorham on USM's home field. The Monks and Huskies are both now 6-10 for the season.Â
Game 1: Saint Joseph's 8, Southern Maine 3
The Monks opened the day with a five-run seventh inning to pull away for an 8-3 victory. Chantelle Bouchard (Biddeford, ME) led the offensive charge for Saint Joseph's, going a perfect 4-for-4 with 4 RBIs, including a two-run homer in the decisive seventh inning.
The teams traded runs in the first inning before Saint Joseph's broke through with two runs in the fifth to take a 3-1 lead. Sylvia Foley (Scarborough, ME) and Bouchard delivered consecutive RBI singles to put the Monks ahead.
The game remained close until the seventh when Saint Joseph's erupted for five runs to put the game out of reach. Bouchard's two-run homer was followed by A. Green-Sermak's (Rehoboth, MA) RBI triple, and the Monks added two more unearned runs to build an 8-1 advantage.
USM hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh, but it wasn't enough to overcome the deficit.
Madison Pelletier (New Gloucester, ME) earned the complete game victory for Saint Joseph's, scattering six hits while allowing just two earned runs. L. McIntosh took the loss for Southern Maine.
Game 2: Southern Maine 6, Saint Joseph's 3
Southern Maine took the second game of the day 6-3 behind a three-run third inning and strong pitching from Mia Coots, who earned her third win of the season.Â
Saint Joseph's struck first when Makayla Quintal (Gorham, ME) singled through the left side in the third inning to score Sadie Tirrell (Naples, ME), who had tripled to right center. USM answered immediately in the bottom half, scoring three runs despite recording just one hit in the frame. The Huskies took advantage of walks and sacrifice flies to take a 3-1 lead.
Southern Maine extended their advantage to 5-1 in the fifth on a two-run single to right center. Saint Joseph's A. Carpenter homered to left field in the sixth to cut the deficit, but the Monks couldn't complete the comeback despite scoring another run in the seventh.
Coots earned the win for Southern Maine, throwing 5.1 innings while striking out six. Abby Lee secured her first save of the season despite allowing a run in 1.2 innings of relief. Rylee Page (Somersworth, NH) took the loss for Saint Joseph's.
