HAVERFORD, Pa. – A pair of late mistakes doomed the Ursinus College softball team to a 2-1 defeat in the opener of Tuesday's Centennial Conference twin bill at Haverford, and the Bears' bats went silent in the nightcap, producing only three hits in a 6-1 setback.
Three errors – two of them coming on the same play late in the first game – conspired to spoil another brilliant outing from sophomore pitcher Kaitlyn Willis. The right-hander did not allow an earned run for the third consecutive start, but Haverford (16-16, 7-5) took advantage of the Bears' ill-timed miscues to steal one on its home field and stretch its winning streak in the series to seven.
Leading 1-0 on an RBI single by freshman Alexa DelMonte in the second, Ursinus (10-16, 4-8) allowed the tying run to score on a two-out throwing error an inning later.
With Willis and Fords counterpart Kendall Chambers trading zeroes, Haverford's winning rally brewed in the sixth, when back-to-back singles put two on with only one out. Two throwing errors on the same play brought Kristin Tatum home with the go-ahead run, and Chambers closed the door with a 1-2-3 top of the seventh.
Willis struck out five and scattered five hits in her six innings, walking only one. Chambers (5-2) worked a complete game, whiffing eight and allowing six hits over seven frames.
With Willis back out to start the nightcap for the second consecutive series, the Fords jumped right on top with a three-run blast by Tatum in the bottom of the first. An RBI single by Julia Blake in the second chased Willis, and Haverford tacked on single runs in the third and fourth to open up a 6-0 lead.
Hitless until the fifth, Ursinus finally got on the board against Sara Tauriello courtesy of a two-out RBI double by freshman Gabrielle Manto.
Tauriello (4-6) allowed just two hits and struck out nine in six innings, and the run she allowed was unearned. Willis (7-7) took the loss.
Rachel Wolfson (2-for-4, run), Blake (2-for-4, run, RBI), and Jessica Koshinski (2-for-4, RBI) all had multiple hits in the nightcap for Haverford. Tatum's three-run blast was her CC-leading seventh of the season.
Senior Zoe Heinke pitched the final 4.2 innings of Game Two; she conceded two runs (one earned) on six hits with three strikeouts. But her biggest moment of the day came in the opener, when she singled in the top of the fourth for the 100th hit of her career. Heinke finished 2-for-3, as did freshman Samantha Garritano, who scored the Bears' lone run.
The Bears wrap up their non-conference schedule with a home doubleheader against Elizabethtown on Thursday, April 21 at 3:00 p.m.