WASHINGTON, D.C. - Hood College's
Colleen Blasko (Bowie, MD/St. Vincent Pallotti) tagged up and scored on a pop foul down the left field field line to give the Blazers' softball team a 5-4 win in nine innings at Catholic. Game two was rained out in the third inning.
Inside the Box Score
- Jocelyn Pfleiger (Quakertown, PA/Dock Mennonite Academy), who was credited with a sacrifice fly on the play, finished 3-for-4 with two runs batted in.
- Rebecca Gottleib (Linthicum, MD/North County) also had three hits in the game and was the winning pitcher, going all nine innings. She struck out three Cardinals to finish the year with a school record 121 punch outs this season. Gottleib broke the old standard of 119, held by Jamie Gardner.
- Brandi Davidson (Northampton, PA/Northampton) and Mallorie Hetzel (Pasadena, MD/Northeast) had two hits apiece.
How it Happened
- Blasko was placed at second base to open the top of the ninth as the international tiebreaker runner with the score tied at 4-44 and moved to third on a groundout by Cailyn Barthlow (Libertytown, MD/Linganore).
- Pfleiger followed and popped one up into foul territory in short left field. Shortstop Sophia Fike raced over and made a diving catch, but the effort left no chance to get the speedy Blasko at home.
- Hood trailed for most of the game before scoring two runs in both the sixth and seventh innings to tie the game each time.
- Pfleiger and Gottleib singled to lead off the sixth and Davidson walked to load the bases. Alyssa Walters (New Oxford, PA/New Oxford) cut the deficit to 2-1 with a sacrifice fly and Hetzel drove in Gottleib with a base hit to tie the game at 2-2.
- RBI singles by Hailee Wess and Amanda Gomez in the bottom of the sixth quickly reclaimed the lead for Catholic 4-2.
- Davidson led off the top of the seventh with a bunt single and stole second. Barthlow moved her to third with a single and a base hit by Pfleiger through the left side drove in a run to make it 4-3. Just like the previous inning, Gottleib followed a Pfleiger single with one of her own and drove in Barthlow to tie the game.
- Catholic's Katie Hurd drove in runs with singles in the third and fifth innings as the Cardinals took an early 2-0 lead.
For Catholic
- Hurd, Fike, Weiss and Sarah Spaeth all had two hits, including a sixth inning homer by Spaeth.
- Hurd was also the starting pitcher and pitched the first 6.1 innings, allowing four runs on 10 hits and two walks in the no-decision.
- Justina Benvenuto took the loss in relief. She was charged with one run in 2.2 innings on a hit and a walk.
Notes
- Hood closes the year 18-20-1, the most wins for the Blazers since the 2018 team went 19-19.
- Catholic dropped to 13-16.
