Softball Opens Season in Florida

From Friday, March 11th to Saturday, March 19th, the Plymouth State Softball team played 14 games in Clermont, Florida for Spring Training. The team went 6-8 over the course of the eight day stretch. The games were full of ups and downs for the Lady Panthers. The team suffered a couple bad losses, including falling to WPI 11-0 on Saturday and losing to Babson 8-0 on Sunday. However, there were also some blowout wins. PSU recovered by beating Lasell 8-0 on Thursday and then Trinity (Conn.) 9-1 on Friday.

There were a couple highlights for the Lady Panthers during this eight day stretch. The first would be how they kept cycling in runs in the first inning against Emerson on the first day in town. PSU scored six runs on six hits in the inning due to three Emerson errors and batted around the order with ease. The scoring was highlighted by a double by Junior Rachel Morrissey (Salem, N.H.) who would knock in two others. Morrissey would later score on an Emerson error.

A great effort was displayed by Plymouth State when they took on Endicott. Trailing 3-0 heading into the bottom of the sixth inning, PSU’s Sophomore Abrie Davis (Amherst, N.H.) homered to left field with two outs and scored three on the play to tie the game. The game would then go into extras, and in the ninth inning, down one run, Junior Callia Abbot (Atco, N.J.) scored on a wild pitch that tied the game and sent it into the tenth inning. However, that is when their luck ran out and Endicott ended their late game surge.

The best highlight for PSU came on the second day, where they found themselves losing to Western New England 5-1 heading into the bot- tom of the seventh inning. The Lady Panthers rallied to pull together five runs in the inning to complete the come-from-behind win. The hit that secured their win was a walk-off double to right field from Senior Julia Royer (Pawcatuck, CT.) that scored three on the play. This win would spark PSU to win two of their next three, their best stretch of the Spring Training.

Some stellar pitching performances were put together by Freshman Kayla Mathieu (Fairfax, VT.) throughout the week. Against Rensselaer, Mathieu went the distance, only giving up one run on seven hits, and she had another complete game against Trinity where she would only allow one run on eight hits. Against Lasell, Mathieu combined with Sophomore Allsion Moylan (Methuen, Mass.) for a four-hit shutout.

Over the course of the 8 days and 14 games, Plymouth State scored 56 runs, had a batting average of .255, an on base percentage of .334, a slugging percentage of .343, and hit three home runs. The Lady Panthers return to the diamond on Thursday, March 31st at Salem State at four in the afternoon.