Mavericks Drop a Pair to Houghton College

Recap, photo courtesy of Medaille College

Opening loss to Highlanders takes an extra frame to settle

HOUGHTON, NY - The Medaille Mavericks Softball team took to the road to play the Houghton College Highlanders on Thursday afternoon. Though there was travel for the blue and gold, the Mavericks would be serving as the home team due to inclement and poor weather conditions in Buffalo.

The cloudy conditions in the Houghton area proved to be a foreshadowing for the Medaille attack on this day, as doom and gloom was the name of the game as the offense was only able to muster up two total runs of offense as the Highlanders came away with a clean sweep. While game one was a tight pitcher's duel (3-2, F/8 innings), game two was no contest as Houghton absolutely ran away with the nightcap triumph (8-0).

Here's how the games played out:

GAME 1

After a scoreless first inning, it was the Highlanders who jumped out to the (1-0) advantage on the strength of an infield single with a runner on third base.

Medaille answered back an inning later, as in the bottom of the third frame Samantha Klein (Lancaster, NY, Lancaster) popped a solo homerun to knot the score up at (1).

That was all the scoring that would occur for either side through seven innings of play. On came extra innings, where it was Houghton who tallied the first (and only) multi-score inning of game one. A two-run double vaulted the Highlanders out to a huge (3-1) lead, applying pressure to the Mavericks who now only had three outs to come up with at least two runs of their own.

Though a retaliation was concocted, Medaille was only able to eke out a single run in the bottom of the eighth inning. Mercedes Sulzbach (West Seneca, NY, West Seneca East)'s RBI groundout pulled the blue and gold to within a run, but their offensive attack was once again stalled as Houghton snuck by the Mavericks by the final score of (3-2).

GAME 1 STATS 7564
Kratzke was a tough-luck loser on the mound in game one
Klein: 1 for 3, R, HR, RBI
Sulzbach: RBI
Laura Kratzke (Alden, NY, Alden) (LP, 7-6): 8 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 12 K

GAME 2

Game two was all Houghton as they scored in four out of seven times at-bat, en route to a convincing (8-0) victory over the blue and gold. Three of those four innings produced multiple runs. Paired with their prolific attack at the plate was a strong pitching performance from their junior two-way player Kaylee Jentsch. Jentsch frustrated the Mavericks attack all game. Though she only registered three strikeouts, she was able to generate weak, early contact and utilized a heavy sinkerball to induce (11) groundouts off the Medaille bats.

The Mavericks went (6) for (25) at the plate against Jentsch. Medaille's lone multi-hit effort in the game two loss came from Morgan Bedford (Newfane, NY, Newfane), tallied two knocks in three at-bats.

GAME 2 STATS
Sharon Trigilio (East, Amherst, Williamsville North): 1 for 2, BB
Bedford: 2 for 3
Kratzke (LP, 7-7): 4.1 IP, 6 H, 3 R (2 ER), BB, 4 K
Brooke Peters (Akron, NY, Akron) [relieved Kratzke in 5th]: 2.2 IP, 6 H, 5 ER, 3 BB, K