By: Ashton Townsend
The Brockport Golden Eagles traveled to RIT Tuesday for a non-conference doubleheader. Brockport took game one, winning 2-0 in a pitching duel. They wold falter late in game two and lose 10-9 on a walk-off to the RIT Tigers.
“I think we showed a lot of heart in both games,” Brockport head coach Mary Karen Wheat said. “I’m most proud of Kendall (Phillips) finally found a way to lock it in and we’ve been asking her to do a lot of work this week to limit her walks and she did just that.”
Brockport didn’t strike until the third inning when Caitlin Dailey singled into right field to drive in Natalie Faas who was standing on second base to grab a 1-0 lead.
In the fifth inning, Kendall Phillips would draw a walk to help herself out on the mound. Riley Barrett came into pinch run for Phillips and advanced to second off a sacrifice bunt by Jackie DuTot. Natalie Faas would then triple down the right-field line to score Barrett and grab a 2-0 lead which would be the final score of game one.
In game one, freshman pitcher Kendall Phillips threw a three-hit, complete game shutout with 11 strikeouts and two walks.
“Everyone likes striking girls out,” Phillips said. “It’s not my top priority, limiting my walks and giving my team opportunities is my top priority.”
Game two was the opposite of a pitching duel, both team's offenses exploded starting with Brockport’s in the top of first. Olivia Simone would triple and bring in a run to grab a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. RIT would then tie it 1-1 in the bottom of the first off a Bailey Kehl single.
RIT would take a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the second inning.
In the top of the fourth, Brockport freshman first-base Paige Wentland would send a single up the middle to score two and grab a 3-2 lead. The Tigers would score three in the bottom of the fourth to take back the 5-3 lead.
Brockport would tie the game at 5-5 in the fifth and then in the bottom of the fifth RIT would re-take a 7-5 lead.
Reagan Meyers would grab an RBI off a groundout to the second baseman to cut the lead to 7-6.
Wentland would step up to the plate with bases loaded in the top of the seventh when down one. She ripped a triple in the right-center gap to plate all three batters and take a 9-7 lead.
“Right before the at-bat Coach Wheat called me over and told me to keep it simple because I’ve been doing too much and I kept it simple and the hit came,” Wentland said.
RIT would tie the game in the bottom of the seventh when Maria Minemier came up to the plate with one runner on and hit a two-run home run.
Lillian Reinstra would then drive in the game-winning run off a single to complete a seventh-inning comeback to split the doubleheader.
“It’s the part of the program that’s trying to grow, those little growing pains are going to happen,” Coach Wheat said. “We can’t ever let up and we let up just a little bit in that last inning and we gave them an opening.”
From here, Brockport will travel to Cortland to take on the Red Dragons in a SUNYAC matchup on Friday, April 12. The first game of the doubleheader is scheduled to start at 3 p.m.
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