WINTER HAVEN, Florida. – After naming Kelly Paterson as their eleventh head coach in program history back in August, the University of New Haven softball team spent the fall and winter preparing for the season looking to kick off their new season and the first for their new head coach. Following their opening day being postponed due to weather, the blue and gold kicked off their season in the sunshine state where they would play ten games over spring break before returning home to the Nutmeg state.
The Chargers opened up the Spring Games with their first game against Wayne State. The bats started strong for New Haven as Bella Chenet (Plantation, Fla./Archbishop McCarthy) singled to start the game off. Using her speed she would steal second base before the bat of Brianna Trueman (Trout Run, Pa./Montoursville Area) drove in her first collegiate run, scoring Chenet from second on a single to the gap. The Chargers would put runners on second and third in the inning but would only cross Chenet in the inning giving starting pitcher Skylar Griffin (Berlin, Md./Stephen Decatur) a one run lead. Wayne State would respond in the home first plating three to take the lead and would plate two more in the home second inning. Viana McKinley (North Chesterfield, Va./Monacan) would come in to pitch for New Haven in the second and would shut down the bats of Wayne State and would post four and two thirds innings of scoreless softball. The bats would respond in the fifth as Stephanie Smith (Rockaway, N.J./Morris Catholic) led the inning off with a walk to get the lead runner on. Olivia Roberto (Merrick, N.Y./Calhoun) advanced Smith to second on a single up the left field line, and the pair would advance a base on a throwing error by the center fielder on Trueman's fly out. With runners on second and third and two outs, Halle Frederick (Green Lane, Pa./Quakertown) cashed in for the blue and gold singling to right scoring Smith and Roberto cutting it to a two run game, 5-3. That scoreline would hold as the Chargers bats would finish with three runs on seven hits leaving seven on the bases. Griffin would take the loss giving up five runs in an inning and a third of work. The blue and gold looked to bounce back in game two of the day as they took on Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP). The Chargers sent McKinley back to the circle riding her success of slowing down Wayne State in game one. The Crimson Hawks would score seven runs across five innings against the blue and gold. New Haven pushed their first run across in the seventh as Stephanie Smith (Rockaway, N.J./Morris Catholic) got the inning started again with a single to center. Smith would advance to third on back to back ground balls before scoring on a wild pitch making it 7-1. The offense combined for one run on four hits as McKinley would take the loss in the circle. New Haven would look to bounce back on Monday when they would play a pair of games first against D'Youville followed up by a meeting with Bloomfield following the completion of the first game. All updates, schedules, and post-game recaps for the team will be available at Newhavenchargers.com.
