SYRACUSE, N.Y. – For the second straight outing, junior Ava Fitzmaurice (Greenville, N.Y./Greenville) has picked up a sweep in the circle and finished among the leaders at the plate as the New Haven softball team picked up a pair of victories on Tuesday against Le Moyne. New Haven and Le Moyne will close out the four-game NE10 Southwest Division series on Wednesday with first pitch of game one set for 2:00 p.m.
Overall for the day, Fitzmaurice scattered five hits across the doubleheader, including a home run, drove in one run and scored three. In the circle, she pitched a total of 13 innings to earn both victories. She would close out the day surrendering 11 hits and allowing three earned runs while striking out six batters.
In addition to Fitzmaurice, five other Chargers all finished with at least one hit as the Blue and Gold registered eight total hits on the afternoon. Joining her in finishing with multiple hits was freshman Megan Anderson and junior middle infielders Nahtali Simpson (West Orange, N.J./West Orange) and Mya Case (Syracuse, N.Y/West Genessee). Simpson closed out the day leading the Chargers with a pair of RBI, while Anderson, senior Jovanna Hillman (Seymour, Conn./Saint Joseph) and freshman Ashley Veisz (Robbinsville,N.J./Robbinsville) all drove in one run. Anderson's RBI came on her first collegiate home run, a solo shot in the top of the seventh of game two.
GAME 1: New Haven 3, Le Moyne 2
The Chargers opened up the scoring early in the opening game when with the first out recorded, Fitzmaurice drilled her second home run of the season over the fence in left center. New Haven would go on to strand four runners in the remainder of the first and the second inning before the Dolphins managed to knot the game at one with a single run in the bottom of the third.
It was a leadoff single that paid off for Le Moyne, with that hit coming from the nine hole in the lineup. A second single later in the frame drove in the tying run. The Chargers didn't let that stalemate last long, plating a pair of unearned runs in the fourth.
With a pair of errors committed by the Dolphins, the Chargers scored two freshman who reached base on a hit batter and error at short. It was the second error, this one at first that allowed both Ashley Veisz (Robbinsville,N.J./Robbinsville) and Ellie Frederick (Sunapee, N.H./Sunapee) to score the go-ahead and eventual game-winning runs.
Le Moyne would manage to cut the Chargers lead to a single run with two hits in the sixth before Fitzmaurice stranded a one-out single on base with back-to-back groundouts to end the game.
GAME 2: New Haven 5, Le Moyne 3
The Chargers again hit hard out of the gates with the first three batters all registering singles to center field, the latter of which from Hillman drove in Case for the first run of the game. Two batters later Veisz would drive in Fitzmaurice to give New Haven the early 2-0 lead.
Le Moyne would manage to even the score at 2-2 with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first while both teams would go scoreless through the next three frames before the Chargers broke the draw with two runs in the fifth inning.
Fitzmaurice started the rally in the fifth with a leadoff single to center, her third hit of the game and she and Veisz would both score on a base-clearing double to left center by Simpson. Anderson would then extend the New Haven lead to 5-2 with a one-out solo bomb in the seventh, her second hit of the day, both of which went for extra bases.
Le Moyne would plate a single run in the bottom of the seventh as they threatened to knot the game with runners on the corners, however Fitzmaurice forced the clean-up hitter into a groundout to short to end the threat and complete the sweep.
