COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – Between Heather Lazer's bat and Morgan Comfort's two-way prowess, the Ursinus College softball team treated its home fans to quite a show.
The Bears ran away with a pair of mercy-rule routs in Tuesday's doubleheader against Eastern, posting a 9-1 victory in the opener and a 10-2 decision in the nightcap to sweep its first set of games on Snell Field.
Comfort and Lazer combined to go 8-for-11 with a home run, two doubles, nine runs scored, and eight RBI at the dish. Lazer – the reigning Centennial Conference player of the week – was 2-for-2 with four runs and three RBI in Game 1, while Comfort hit a grand slam and scored three times as part of a 3-for-4 effort in the nightcap. Comfort also tossed six strong innings to pick up the win on the mound in Game 2, following up an efficient effort from junior Jennifer Hammons in the preceding tilt.
Game 1: Ursinus 9, Eastern 1
The Eagles (3-11) got on the board first with an RBI single by Taylor Crown in the top of the first, but left the bases loaded and never scored again despite several golden opportunities.
Ursinus made the visitors pay in its half, getting an RBI single from Lazer and a two-run double by senior Gabrielle Manto to go up 3-1.
After scoring a run in the third, the Bears (7-7) busted the game open in the fifth. Lazer ignited a four-run outburst with a two-run single, and senior Kayla Quinn brought her home by lacing a triple over the head of the center fielder. An error allowed Quinn to dash across the plate with an 8-1 advantage.
Comfort walked it off in the sixth, roping an RBI double to the gap in left-center to score Lazer after the sophomore had walked to open the inning and went to second on Quinn's hit-by-pitch.
Lazer reached safely in all four plate appearances, posting two hits in addition to a walk and a hit-by-pitch, and scored all four times she got on. Comfort finished 1-for-2 with two walks and an RBI, while Manto drove in three runs.
Hammons got herself into trouble several times in the early going but managed to wriggle out of danger every time. The Eagles had two on with no outs in the second and third, sandwiched around another two-on chance in the third, but Hammons expertly skirted the trouble. The right-hander worked six full innings, scattering seven hits and three walks; she struck out four, and the one run she allowed was unearned.
Game 2: Ursinus 10, Eastern 2
The second game turned into the Comfort show, as the sophomore showed off her star-power both at the plate and on the mound.
Comfort broke the game open in the third inning, smoking a grand slam over the fence in left-center field to score sophomore Megan Hasulak (walk), Lazer (single), and Quinn (hit by pitch) to make it 5-0.
The Eagles got on the board in the fourth, but freshman Mackenzie Brennan got the run back and then some with her first home run in an Ursinus uniform. The rookie got all of a pitch and sent it soaring over the wall in right field for a 7-1 lead.
Eastern pulled one back in the fifth before the Bears answered with two of their own, first on a double by senior Faith Carson and again on Brennan's RBI groundout. Carson added another walk-off in the sixth, plopping a base hit down the left-field line with the bases loaded and two outs to plate Comfort with the clinching run.
At the plate, Comfort went 3-for-4 with three runs scored and four RBI. Lazer was 2-for-3 with a double and a run, while Carson drove in three runs as part of a 2-for-4 effort.
In the circle, Comfort allowed two runs – one earned – on four hits with a walk and two strikeouts.
The Bears travel to Elizabethtown on Thursday for a non-conference twin bill before opening Centennial Conference play at Dickinson on Saturday.