There was a lot of softball to be played for the Raiders last weekend in their three-game series against Army. Colgate softball managed to rally and win the second game of a doubleheader against Army, but ultimately headed back to Hamilton with two losses on the board. The team dropped two of three to Army, bringing its record to 6-23 on the season, and 2-4 in conference play. 

In the first game of the series on Saturday afternoon, Army took a 2-0 lead on a two-out, two-run single in the first inning. Colgate answered with a run off a sacrifice bunt from second-year Nicole Rounsavill, cutting the Army lead to one. 

However, the Black Knights would go on to put up three more runs in the fourth and fifth innings to push their lead to five, as Colgate wasn’t able to get their lineup going. 

It was a different story later that night, however, as the bats finally came to life and led Colgate to a 8-5 victory. The game featured two standout performances from junior Meghan Romero and first-year Mia Guevarra, who had three RBIs each.

The Raiders struck early on in this one, paving the way with a double from senior Holly Geranen, which was followed up by a Guevarra RBI single. Army responded immediately in the bottom of the frame with three runs, but Guevarra brought in another run in the third to bring the score to 3-2. In the bottom of the fifth Colgate jumped ahead 5-3, all of the damage coming with two-outs. After Gernan drew a walk to get on base, Guevarra reached on an error, and junior Bailie Jorth reached on base-on-balls, to load the bases. Romero then came through in the clutch, doubling to clear the bases and put three runs on the board. 

Army added a run in the top of the sixth to pull within one, but Colgate kept the floodgates open through the sixth inning, tacking on three more runs. Sophomore Nicole Rounsavill led off the scoring on an RBI double, while Geranen and Guevarra went on to add an RBI each, increasing the lead to 8-4. First-year Bella Crow pitched a complete game to earn the win making, the final score 8-5. 

In the final of the three-game series, Colgate was not able to overcome a strong pitching performance from Army’s Courtney Springman, ultimately falling 4-0. Although the team had several opportunities with runners in scoring position, they were unable to produce any runs. 

They threatened with two runners on base in the fourth, but only had two more runners on base for the rest of the game, as Army won the series, 2-1 and moved their overall record to 15-21 on the season and 5-4 in the conference.

Next up, the Raiders will take on another Patriot League opponent when they hit the road on Saturday, traveling to Easton, Pennsylvania to play Lafayette in a three-game series. The team will look to improve as it embarks on the last leg of the regular season and begin to prepare for the Patriot League Tournament, which is set to begin next month, on May 10.

Contact Neil Ahlawat at nahlawat@colgate.edu.