March 18, 2007
Kissimmee, FL - The Endicott College softball team opened its season in sunny Florida Sunday with games against Fitchburg State and Illinois Wesleyan. The Gulls came away with a 2-1 win in against FSC before dropping their afternoon game 7-0 to IWU.
Jackie Collier (Swampscott, MA/Bishop Fenwick) looked to be in midseason form in her first start, pitching a six hit complete game guiding EC to a 2-1 win over the Falcons. Collier struck out five while walking just one batter and allowing a lone run over seven innings.
Endicott got on the board in the third inning when Jenna Lazar (Milton, MA/Milton) reached on an error by Fitchburg State pitcher Michelle Yuille (Aciushnet, MA). Lazar would score later in the inning thanks to a pair of ground outs by Danielle Sargent (Sabattus, ME/Oak Hill) and Meghan Sargent (Salisbury, MA/Triton) that allowed Lazar to cross the plate.
The Gulls picked up another run when Meghan Sargent homered off on Yuille in the fifth inning. Meghan Sargent finished the day one-for-three with a run batted in, one walk, one strike out and one home run.
Fitchburg State threatened to tie the game in the final inning after Keri Kravetz (West Bridgewater, MA) singled to lead off the inning. That set up a two-out RBI double from Jessie Krause (Halifax, MA/Silver Lake) cutting EC's lead to 2-1. The Falcons rally would not last long however as Collier got Michelle Zullo (Lowell, MA) to ground out to end the game.
The Gulls would not fair so well in their second game of the day as they fell 7-0 to Illinois Wesleyan. EC struggled to get its bats going managing just two hits over seven innings against Lauren Hyland (Evergreen Park, IL/Evergreen Park), who tossed a complete game shutout at Endicott.
Robyn Savitske (Hellertown, PA/Saucon Valley) went five and two thirds innings for Endicott, surrendering 11 hits and seven earned runs while striking out three and walking two. Jen Elwell (Tyngsboro, MA/Shawsheen Tech.) pitched an inning and a third in relief striking out three of the six batters she faced.
Illinois Wesleyan scored a run in the third and fifth innings before touching EC for five runs in the sixth putting the game out of reach for the Gulls and securing the win for Hyland.
Endicott opens its season at 1-1 with Collier (1-0) picking up the win in game one and Savitske (0-1) earning the loss in game two. The Gulls are back at it Monday when they take on Smith College at 1:00 pm and St. Norbert at 5:00 pm with both games being played in Kissimmee, FL.
