FILLMORE, N.Y. – Houghton softball registered another sweep Saturday, taking two games from Medaille College at Fillmore Central School.
Houghton won game one in a back-and-forth slugfest, 16-8, while providing fans with a thrilling 8-7 extra-inning walk-off winner in game two.
In the opener, each team scored three runs in the first inning and battled back and forth over the next four innings in a close contest. The Highlanders trailed 8-6 entering the bottom of the sixth, and scored 10 times to gain the eight-run advantage to end the game. The bottom of the sixth featured eight hits, two errors, two walks and two batters hit by a pitch. The deciding run scored when
Taylor Sile came home after
Katelyn Cook was hit at the plate.
Houghton banged out 15 hits in the contest, led by
Tanya Hatton, was finished 4-for-5.
Alishia Foss,
Lauren Couturier,
Jenny Young and Sile had two hits each. Foss also drove in three runs.
Sile went the distance on the mound, allowing eight runs on six hits, walking seven and striking out three.
The nightcap went extra innings with the teams again exchanging the lead throughout the contest.
Houghton got on the board first with two runs in the bottom of the first, highlighted by Sile's two-run homer, and added two runs in each of the next two innings. But the Mavericks also scored twice in the second and twice in the third to make the score 6-4 in favor of the Highlanders, and added a single run in the fifth and two in the sixth to take a 7-6 lead.
The Highlanders weren't ready to call it a day, however. Sile had a hit and Houghton took advantage of an error and a passed ball to score the tying run in the bottom of the seventh.
After getting a runner placed at second to start the eighth, Medaille took advantage of two walks to load the bases with one out. But Cook took a grounder at first and threw out the runner advancing to home to keep the Mavs from getting the go-ahead run.
Kaylee Jentsch struck out the final Mavs batter to end the threat.
Houghton got to place Foss at second to start the bottom of the eighth and
Kelly Parmeter was called on as a pinch runner. Cook struck out for the first out, but an error at first on a grounder by Barb Richert was all Parmeter needed. The speedy freshman took off from second and scored on the play to end the game.
Each team produced seven hits. Sile finished 3-for-4 with two runs scored and two RBI.
Nicole Fata started on the mound, allowing four runs on seven hits, striking out four and walking six. Jentsch pitched 2 2/3 innings of hitless and scoreless relief, striking out five and walking five.
Houghton (4-10) travels to Oswego for a doubleheader on Tuesday, March 28.
