NEWTON, Mass. – Mount Ida College took both halves of a non-conference softball double-header, 9-1 and 7-6, over Regis College on a brisk Tuesday afternoon in Newton, Mass. The Pride drops to 0-7 on the young season, while Mount Ida improves to 7-11. Jasmyne Welch (Wells, Maine) homered in a 2-for-3 effort in game two for the Pride.
Regis struck first in the opening game as Katie Blackburn (Milford, Mass.) drove in Kara Donovan (Woburn, Mass.) to give the Pride a 1-0 lead in the opening inning of game one. The Mustangs answered with five runs in their half of the inning, on a pair of RBI singles by Kirsten Guerrero and Gina Onorevole and a bases clearing, three-run homerun by Nickole Soto.
The Pride bats went silent for the rest of the ball game as they only mustered three more baserunners as a result of two Mount Ida errors and a Alex Manavas (Montville, Conn.) walk. Mount Ida finished the game in the sixth inning as Guerrero struck again with an RBI double followed by a Rayelle Pierson RBI double. Pierson came around to score on an error to end game one, 9-1.
Emily Pickett (Wrentham, Mass.) suffered the setback for Regis, going 5.2 innings and giving up nine runs (seven earned) on 12 hits.
Mount Ida struck first in the second game, scoring three runs in their half of the first inning on a two-RBI double by Kirsten Guerrero, and an unearned run. Jasmyne Welch answered in the top of the second with a homerun to leftfield that cut the deficit to 3-1, however the Mustangs tacked on two more in their half the second on back-to-back RBI singles by Tiffany Hamann and Guerrero.
Mount Ida made it a 7-1 game in the bottom of the third, but Regis responded with four runs in the top of the fourth to make it a 7-5 game. Katie Blackburn and Jillian Bruning (Medford, Mass.) started the inning with back-to-back singles, and Jasmyne Welch drove in her second run of the game with a single to center that scored Blackburn. Following a passed ball that allowed both runners to move up and allowed Bruning to score, Kelsey Heath (Lowell, Mass.) drove in a run with a fielder's choice before Caitlin White (Littleton, Mass.) added an RBI groundout to round out the scoring.
Katie Blackburn added an RBI single in the top of the fifth to make it a 7-6 game, but the Pride went quietly in their half of the sixth and could not force a run across in their half of the seventh, allowing the Mustangs to hang on for a 7-6 win.
Samantha Bliss (Framingham, Mass.) took the loss for Regis, lasting only two innings while allowing five runs (four earned) on five hits while walking three. Emily Pickett pitched the final four innings, allowing only two earned runs on eight hits with a pair of strikeouts.
The Pride return to action on Saturday afternoon as Regis hosts Daniel Webster in the Pride's first home game of the year, as well as its first New England Collegiate Conference doubleheader, starting at 12:00 p.m.