The Hamilton College softball team closed out the home portion of its schedule on Wednesday with an 8-0 win over Morrisville State College in a game shortened to five innings. The Continentals (13-14 overall) have won four of their last five games.
Box score
Kelly Leonard ’15, one of four Hamilton seniors playing in their final game at Ferguson Field, threw a one-hit shutout to improve to 10-7 on the season.
The Continentals scored two runs in each of their last four times at bat, rapping out 13 hits and taking advantage of five Mustang errors.
Hannah Staab ’17 had three hits and drove in three runs and Talia Mercado ’15 finished with two hits and a pair of runs batted in to lead the Hamilton offense. Ellie Kiernan '15 collected the 100th hit of her collegiate career.
Mercado scored the Continentals’ first run, coming home on a single by Phoebe Collins ’18 after singling up the middle to lead off the second inning. Leonard followed with a run-scoring double.
Mercado doubled in a pair of runs in the third inning and two more runs scored on Staab’s fourth-inning single to right field. The Continentals closed out the game four batters into the fifth when Staab singled in Collins and Leonard.
Leonard faced the minimum 12 batters over four innings. Morrisville’s only base-runner, Tomara Bodnaruik ’16, hit a two-out single in the second but was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double. The Mustangs (5-23) loaded the bases in the top of the fifth without the benefit of a hit.
Beth Marr ’17 drew a lead-off walk and one batter later Bodnaruik was hit by a full-count pitch. Jessica Carroll ’18 walked with two outs before Leonard picked up the last of her eight strikeouts to squelch the rally.
The Continentals play a NESCAC West Division series at first-place Williams College with a 5 p.m. game on Friday, April 24, and a noon doubleheader on Saturday, April 25. With a sweep, Hamilton would clinch the program’s first NESCAC playoff berth. Morrisville plays a doubleheader at Cazenovia College on Friday.
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