Mustangs Take Two from Lady AMCATS

NEWTON, Mass. – A packed three-day stretch came to a close on Sunday afternoon with Mount Ida College collecting a pair of Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) softball wins by sweeping Anna Maria College in two run-rule victories.

The Mustangs improved to 3-5 in the GNAC after using a six-run first to shut out the AMCATS 10-0 in five innings to start the day and closing the door with a four-run sixth inning in game two for an 11-3 final.

Freshman pitcher Nicole Handzel (Palmer, Mass.) pitched the entirety of both games and collected her second and third victories on the season, while the Mustang offense rapped out 13 hits in each contest.

Mount Ida was also observing Coaches vs. Cancer day, teaming up with the GNAC to raise awareness and support for the fight against breast cancer. The Mustangs wore pink t-shirts throughout both games, and had Jean Ewan, mother of Head Coach Katie Zuman and a breast cancer survivor herself, throw out the first pitch.

Game 1: Mount Ida 10, Anna Maria 0, 5 inn. 

A five hit, six run first inning that included three Anna Maria errors helped get the day started in a big way for Mount Ida, who saw their first six batters reach base.

The middle of the Mount Ida lineup had a big first game, as right fielder Shannon McArthur (Coventry, R.I.), shortstop Kirsten Guerrero (Fairfield, Conn.) and designated player Nickole Soto (Marlboro, Mass.) combined to go 7-9 with seven runs batted in and five runs scored.

McArthur knocked a double down the left field line to plate the first runs of the game, and Guerrero and Soto followed with RBI singles, as did junior Gina Onorevole (Lafayette, N.J.).

The Mustangs tacked on the rest of their runs in the bottom of the fourth when Guerrero collected her third hit and second double of the game to score McArthur, who had already poked a two-run single that brought home Michele MacDonald (North Dighton, Mass.) and Lucianna Medici (Riverside, R.I.), who had started the inning with two straight singles.

Soto made it five straight hits to start the fourth when she doubled in Guerrero, though she was thrown out trying to stretch her two-bagger into a triple.

Handzel (2-7) allowed just three hits and struck out eight while issuing just one walk, which was to the first batter of the game and her counterpart, Nichole Lowe (Saugus, Mass.).

Lowe dropped to 0-5 on the season after pitching three innings and allowing seven earned runs on ten hits.

Destinee Lucier (Worcester, Mass.), Kaitlyn Moran (Leicester, Mass.) and Cristina Turley (Waterford, Conn.) were the AMCAT players to get hits off of Handzel, all of them singles.

Game 2: Mount Ida 11, Anna Maria 3, 6 inn.

Onorevole had a 3-for-4 day and Guerrero added two more hits, runs and RBIs, while MacDonald drove in three runs from the lead-off spot, two of them on a triple to center field in the bottom of the second, when Mount Ida jumped out to a 3-0 lead.

Second baseman Elizabeth Haggerty (Charlton, Mass.) was 2-2 for the AMCATS, and she got the visitors on the board for the first time when she singled in the third and reached home as part of a double-steal.

The Green and White added three more runs in the fourth on three hits and two Anna Maria miscues. Center fielder Meg Hall (Danielson, Conn.) added a single and came around to score on what would have been an RBI groundout by MacDonald but became an error on the AMCATS second baseman.