WINTER HAVEN, Florida. – The New Haven Softball beat out the mix of snow and rain that fell on West Haven on Saturday as they boarded their flight to Florida ahead of their week of 10 games in 5 days competing in the NTC Spring games. The blue and gold opened up their tournament play with first pitch at 9:00 a.m against Dominican College followed by a 1:30 first pitch against Wayne State.
Game 1 vs Dominican
Preview
Entering the game against Dominican the Chargers were perfect, holding the series 6-0 all time. The two Chargers teams haven't been in the same stable together since 2014, when Dominican traveled to West Haven, to take on the Blue and Gold. New Haven took both games of the double header against Dominican, winning 4-0 in game 1 and 6-2 in game 2. Coming into the matchup, Head Coach Don Justus and the blue and gold picked up their first win of the season splitting their season opener against Saint Thomas Aquinas last weekend. Dominican on the other hand comes into Florida with this being their first game of the 2022 season after their first two games were canceled.
Between the Chalk
It was an offensive explosion for the blue and gold coming out from the first pitch. Mya Case (Syracuse, N.Y/West Genessee) led things off with a lead off single followed by Maeve Lougheed (Audobon, N.J./Audobon) who singled to left to start the game with runners at first and second. Nahtali Simpson (West Orange, N.J./West Orange) entered the box and it took her four pitches toc completely change the game. On the 1-2 pitch Simpson went deep and cleared the center field fence for a three run homerun to break open the scoring, notching her second homer of the season. In the circle Selena Aponte (Lumberton, N.J./Rancocas Valley) looked to pick up her second win of the year and she used her team behind her getting ground ball after ground ball to shut down the Dominican Chargers offense. The Chargers jumped right back on the bats in the second inning adding another four runs in the second to stretch out to a 7-0 lead. In the second Aponte let the first two batters of the inning on but slammed the door with a punch out looking to end the inning and bring the red hot bats back up. The blue and gold put on another two runs in the third scoring Case and Lougheed to go out to a 9-0 lead. Aponte and the Chargers defense continued to make quick work of the Dominican bats, making play after play and keeping the innings moving. Dominican picked up their lone run of the game in the fourth from a homerun, the lone blemish on Aponte's stat line. New Haven would go on to win 9-1 improving to 2-1 on the year and had a short break before they returned to the diamond to play Wayne State.
Game 2 vs Wayne State
Preview
Following their game 1 victory against Dominican, the Chargers had a short turnaround as they were back on the diamond to take on Wayne State. These two teams hadn't seen each other since 2014 when they met in Winter Haven Florida in the Rebel Spring Games where it was Wayne State coming out on top winning 2-1. All time Wayne State holds the slight edge over the Chargers in their series leading 3-2 ahead of the two teams sixth all-time meeting. The Chargers with their game 1 win over Dominican moved to 2-1 as Wayne State sat at 2-2 with their first games away from home and outside their indoor turf stadium.
Between the Chalk
Mia Iodice (Rehoboth, Mass./Dighton-Rehoboth Regional) took to the circle in game 2 looking to pick up her first win from the circle in 2022. After the Chargers went down in order in the top of the first, Iodice got a quick first out via the fly out before giving up two singles. Iodice picked up the second out, striking out Mady Ruczynski. With two outs the warriors were able to pick up two more singles off Iodice scoring the first two runs of the game taking the 2-0 lead. After the first inning, Iodice found her rhythm from the circle pitching six innings picking up two more strikeouts and giving up three more hits after the first inning where the Warriors totalled four hits. The Chargers got their first opportunity to push their first run across in the fourth after Selena Aponte (Lumberton, N.J./Rancocas Valley) got on with a one out single. Ashanti Truelsen (Yonkers, N.Y./Saint Vincent Ferrer) pinch ran for Aponte and would advance to third in the inning. With runners on second and third the Chargers had the opportunity to tie it up with Halle Fredrick up to bat. Frederick was denied her base hit thanks to a web gem at third to deny the Chargers the scoring chance. Wayne State picked up an insurance run in the 5th to go out in front 3-0. The blue and gold would get one more chance in the seventh, with the stage set, bases loaded with the heart of the order up to bat. Mya Case (Syracuse, N.Y/West Genessee) walked, Maeve Lougheed (Audobon, N.J./Audobon) singled and Nahtali Simpson (West Orange, N.J./West Orange) walked on four pitches. With the bases loaded and one out with four and five up in the order the pressure was on the Warriors. After Jovanna Hillman (Seymour, Conn./Saint Joseph) struck out Selena Aponte (Lumberton, N.J./Rancocas Valley) was the blue and golds last chance to extend the game but she two was denied a hit by the Warriors defense by another web gem to end the Chargers comeback.
Day 2
Splitting day one in Florida, the Chargers look to day two where they will face off against the University of Indianapolis in game one followed by a meeting with Purdue University Northwest. New Haven and Indianapolis have faced each other only twice with Indianapolis taking both games while this will be the first meeting between Purdue University Northwest and the Chargers. First pitch between Indianapolis and the Chargers is at 2:20 p.m followed by first pitch of Chargers, Purdue coming at 4:30 p.m.
