WINTER HAVEN, Florida. – After dropping their opening pair of games on Sunday, the University of New Haven softball team looked to bounce back and get to .500 on the year as they took to the diamond taking on D'Youville and Bloomfield on Monday in early action.
Pitching started strong for the Chargers as Breanna Kinney (Minnetonka, Minn./Minnetonka)took to the circle and opened up the game using her defense to help her out getting ground outs and fly outs keeping D'Youville batters guessing. D'Youville would plate the first run of the game in the third on three hits to take the one run lead. That lead would not last for long as the blue and gold responded in the top of the fourth as Halle Frederick (Green Lane, Pa./Quakertown) reached on an error to get the inning going. She would advance to second on a sac bunt by Meg Anderson (Cranston, R.I./Cranston) before coming around to score on Emily Ricci's (Ringwood, N.J./Lakeland Regional) single to center field tying the game at 1-1. The bats would not be held quiet for long getting back to work in the fifth as Bella Chenet (Plantation, Fla./Archbishop McCarthy) would take the lead for New Haven. After singling to lead the inning off she would steal second base and then steal third base forcing a bad throw taking home and putting New Haven back in front 2-1. She would then go back to work in the seventh extending the lead for New Haven. After walking to lead off the inning she would steal her third base of the game getting into scoring position. After advancing to third on a fielders choice she would score on a sacrifice fly putting New Haven up 3-1. With the lead Breanna Kinney (Minnetonka, Minn./Minnetonka) would shut the door on D'Youville getting a ground out and a pair of fly outs to take the game giving New Haven their first win of the season heading into their meeting with the Bears of Bloomfield. Skylar Griffin (Berlin, Md./Stephen Decatur) returned to the circle to take on the Bears looking to pick up her first win of the season from the circle. The Bears were the first to push a run across as the first run scored unearned against Griffin. Out of the first the Chargers trailed by a run but Bloomfield responded plating four runs in the second inning taking the early five run lead. New Haven would come out hot in the third as Bella Chenet (Plantation, Fla./Archbishop McCarthy) continued to stay hot doubling to lead off the inning and getting into scoring position. She would advance to third on a fly out before Halle Frederick (Green Lane, Pa./Quakertown) forced an error on the Bears defense to plate Chenet and putting the blue and gold on the board. The Chargers would get the bats back to work in the fifth as back to back singles in the inning by Olivia Roberto (Merrick, N.Y./Calhoun) and Breanna Trueman before Frederick would again put the ball into play and force a mistake on the defense plating a run and making it 5-2. The Chargers would load the bases in the inning but would leave them loaded trailing by three. The Chargers would fall by the final score of 5-2 as the offense combined for two runs on five hits as Griffin dropped her second game of the year as the team would sit at 1-3 overall.
The blue and gold would return to the diamond with another pair of games as the take on Lewis first before a meeting with Indianapolis. First pitch against Lewis is scheduled for 1:45 p.m before first pitch against Indianapolis scheduled for 4:30p.m. All updates, schedules, and post-game recaps for the team will be available at Newhavenchargers.com.
