This past weekend the Colgate women’s softball team competed in the Hatter Invitational in Deland, Florida, where they played in five games. The team opened tournament play on Friday, February 23 with games against Brown University and host-team Stetson University. Brown had a three run second inning to kick off the scoring but the Raiders were able to put a run on the board when sophomore Virginia Irby opened the inning with a ground-rule double. She was batted in by fellow sophomore Nicole Rounsavill to make it 3-1 at the end of the inning. Brown extended its lead the following inning to 4-1 when Cat Seitz, reaching first on a throwing error, was driven in by Annie Scarangella. Brown was able to add to the lead in the fifth making it 6-1 when two more batters drove in runs off of singles. The Bears were able to hang on and hold off any more Raider runs for the remaining four innings, and took the game 6-1.

In the second game of the day, the Raiders took on Stetson on the latter team’s home turf. After a scoreless first two innings, Stetson’s Devin Lewis singled up the middle and drove in Kasey Fava to give the Hatters the game’s first run. The hosts padded their lead in the next inning with Blake Crews doubling to center and Maggie Fritz coming home to make it 2-0. The Raiders were able to cut the lead in half in the sixth after junior Bailey Jorth led the inning of with a single. Soon after, sophomore Jordan Miller knocked in pinch runner Madison Aston to make it 2-1. The Raiders continued to battle fiercely throughout sixth and seventh innings but were not able to get any runs on the board, eventually falling to their hosts 2-1.

On Saturday the Raiders took on Mount St. Mary and had another chance to face off against Brown. The Raiders were able to take an early lead in the first inning when senior Holly Geranen sent a solo shot to the center to take a 1-0 lead. The Raiders held onto their lead until the fourth inning when Mount St. Mary’s Marian Ruf doubled and drove Kaylee Stoner in to tie the game. It was Ruf again who in the sixth doubled and drove in Erin Meagher and Lexi Donovan to give the Mountaineers a 3-1 lead and the win. 

In the second game, the Bears and Raiders were neck-and-neck at first, both scoring twice in the third. Brown broke the tie when Seitz scored off an Okamoto double to make it 3-2. However, the Raiders tied it up in the sixth inning when first-year utility player Christiana Cottrell scored off a groundout to force extra innings. The bats came alive in the eighth inning for the Raiders as Jorth, Rounsavill and sophomore Jordan Miller each drove in runs to give the Raiders a 6-3 lead. Brown was able to score again but it wasn’t enough. 

The Raiders took their first win of the season as the game ended with a score of 6-4. In the final game of the tournament on Sunday, the Raiders bats were stifled and Mount St. Mary was able to piece together a five run fifth inning to give the Mounties a 9-2 win.  

The team will have two weeks off before they travel to California for the UC Riverside tournament on March 9, when they will take on Boise State, Columbia University, North Dakota State, Harvard University and host UC Riverside over the course of the four-day tournament. The team will open play at home with a three-game series against Binghamton on March 31. 

Contact Gideon Hamot at ghamot@colgate.edu.