Manhattan Comes Back to Knock Off Hampton, 10-7

HAMPTON, VA – After picking up two come-from-behind wins on the first day of the Hampton Invitational, the Manhattan College softball team did it again on Sunday.  The Jaspers (7-3) fell behind 6-1 after one inning before rallying to notch a 10-7 triumph over host Hampton (4-6) at Lady Pirates Stadium.

Stephanie Reinhardt (Albany, NY) drew a bases loaded walk in the top of the first to give Manhattan the lead, but the Lady Pirates scored six times in the bottom half of the inning.  The big blow was a three-run double by Daniella Milloy.

Manhattan got one back on Emily Cutler's (Bloomigdale, NJ) RBI single in the second, then took the lead with a five-spot in the fourth.  Shannon Puthe (Mullica Hill, NJ) and Cutler both walked to start the inning before Lauren Pitney (Ansonia, CT) belted her second home run in as many days, a three-run blast that brought the Jaspers within 6-5.  After Manhattan reloaded the bases on two singles and a hit batsman, Kat Prevo (San Diego, CA) sent a grounder towards third that knocked in two runs.

The Jaspers added two more in the top of the fifth.  Cutler was hit by a pitch, Alexa Dawid (Milford, CT) singled and Pitney walked to load the bases with nobody out.  After a double play, Jenn Vazquez (Fairfield, CT) delivered a two-run single to left that increased Manhattan's advantage to 9-6.

Four consecutive Hampton singles to start the bottom of the sixth put the tying run on second with no outs for Kayla DeSchepper.  She lifted a fly ball to left and Taylor Clark tried to score on the play.  However, she was nailed at the plate by Dawid for the second out, then Taylor McCoy popped up to end the inning.  Manhattan picked up an insurance tally on Rachael Mumma's (Mechanicsburg, PA) RBI groundout in the top of the seventh, and Anna Crowley (Eastchester, NY) slammed the door on the Lady Pirates in the bottom half of the inning to close out the Jaspers' fifth consecutive victory.

Dawid and Cutler both finished with two hits and two runs scored, while Vazquez had a pair of hits and drove in two.  Puthe also scored twice, and Prevo collected two RBIs.  Pitney, meanwhile, went 1-for-3 with two runs scored and three RBIs.  Starting pitcher Danielle Gabriel (Island Heights, NJ) allowed six runs on two hits and three walks in 0.1 innings.  Erin Hamm (Collegeville, PA) (1-1) earned the win after giving up just one run on seven hits and striking out three over 4.2 innings.  Crowley gave up two hits and recorded a strikeout in two scoreless innings to pick up the save.

Hope Sobelewski went 3-for-3 with two runs scored and an RBI for the Lady Pirates.  Milloy finished 2-for-3 with four RBIs, while McCoy was 2-for-4 with an RBI.  Jade Fields (1-3) went the distance in the circle, yielding 10 runs (eight earned) on nine hits.  She also walked eight and struck out one.