WINTER HAVEN, Florida. – After their first day off since being in Florida, the Chargers returned to the diamond for another double header against Slippery Rock and Minot State. With the games being moved up to earlier start times, the time changes did not make a difference to the Chargers who picked up their sixth career win against Slippery Rock and moving to 4-5 on the year before losing a tough battle against a Minot State team coming off a win against the 8th ranked team West Chester.
Game 1 vs Slippery Rock
Preview
In their seventh meeting all time the blue and gold took on a Slippery Rock team entering the game sitting at 5-8 on the year coming off of an 8-7 win against Saint Michael's College in their first game of their Thursday double header. New Haven sat at 3-5 entering the contest with Slippery Rock being their first game of their Thursday double header coming off their day off on Wednesday. All time the Chargers lead the series 5-1 all time with their last meeting being in 2017 in West Haven where the blue and gold walked away with a 5-2 victory at home. New Haven entered Thursday looking to get back to .500 by the end of the afternoon, and trying to snap Slippery Rocks one game win streak.
Between the Chalk
Rest is what the bats ordered for the Chargers, who went right back to work. Both pitchers flew through the first three innings posting zeros, but that all changed in the fourth when Meg Anderson (Cranston, R.I./Cranston) stepped into the box looking to change the outcome of the game. With the speed of Nahtali Simpson (West Orange, N.J./West Orange) on third Anderson flew out deep to left field scoring Simpson easily from third and giving the Chargers the 1-0 lead. Anderson wasn't finished leading the Chargers in the batter's box after the 4th. In the 6th, Anderson stepped in with the bases loaded and with one swing of the bat cleared the left field fence for the grand slam and made it a 5-0 game. Slippery Rock scored their lone run in the 6th off of a fielding error. With the lead Iodice continued to dominate from the circle as she had done all afternoon giving up only 3 hits and striking out 2 in her complete game victory picking up her first win of the season. Anderson's bat accounted for all 5 of the blue and golds runs, four of them coming from the grand slam for her first homer of the season. With the win the Chargers moved to 4-5 on the year and moved on to their second game of the double header trying to move back to .500 on the year.
Game 2 vs Minot State
Preview
Coming off of their 5-1 win over Slippery Rock, the Chargers returned to the diamond to take on the 16-4 Minot State Beavers. The Beavers knocked off #8 West Chester University earlier in the day in extra innings winning 5-4 while the Chargers sit at 4-5 looking to get back to .500 overall and move to 2-0 on Thursday. In their last matchup Minot State traveled to West Haven in 2014 with the Beavers coming out on top winning 2-1.
Between the Chalk
Selena Aponte (Lumberton, N.J./Rancocas Valley) took to the circle in game 2 looking to quiet the Beavers bats and pick up her fourth win on the season. The defense of the blue and gold was put to the test from the first pitch until the last against the Beavers. The long ball has been the way to score runs for the Chargers all through the tournament as the blue and gold added another in game two this time coming off the bat of Mya Case (Syracuse, N.Y/West Genessee) to lead off the bottom of the first and make it a 3-1 game. Meg Anderson's (Cranston, R.I./Cranston) bat continued to be red hot picking up her second hit of the afternoon this time single. Hailey Polisano (Howell, N.J./Howell) tallied the Chargers third hit of the contest in a quiet game for the blue and gold. Alex Tenero (Wallingford, Conn./Lyman Hall) debuted in the circle striking out 1 and getting three fly outs and five ground outs in her three innings of work in the contest. Case's solo home run would be the lone run for the blue in gold in a hard 17-1 loss.
Day 6
With their final day in Florida, the Chargers will have one last double header before they board their flight to head home to West Haven ahead of the start of their Northeast 10 conference play. Before any trips the Chargers first will face a Bloomsburg Huskies team at 1:30 for just their second ever meeting all time, followed by another second ever meeting between the Rams from Shepherd who the Chargers beat in their lone matchup in 2010 winning 2-1. First pitch of the Shepherd game will be at 3:45.
