WINTER HAVEN, Florida. – With just two days to go in the sunshine state before they return home for the season to continue, the University of New Haven Softball team went into their second meeting of the trip with D'Youville looking for a similar result from Monday when the Chargers won 3-1 and Head Coach Kelly Paterson picked up her first win with the blue and gold.

During the trip the Chargers bats had been held quiet staying in single digits for runs in all of their previous games, but that all Changed as the bats exploded for 13 runs in the game. Bella Chenet (Plantation, Fla./Archbishop McCarthy) left the game off with a single and would advance to second on a wild pitch. Chenet would try to add to her stolen base total but would be caught at third just before Olivia Roberto (Merrick, N.Y./Calhoun) walked putting another runner on for the blue and gold. Roberto like Chenet would advance on a passed ball. Brianna Trueman (Trout Run, Pa./Montoursville Area) walked setting up two on with no outs in the first as the Chargers looked to get on the board first. After a popup for the second out of the inning, Luccia Ceccarelli put the ball in play forcing an error on the shortstop scoring Roeberto from second. With one run across and two runners on Kylie Thorpe (Taunton, Mass./Taunton) added to the run total tripling to right scoring both Trueman and Ceccarelli before she herself came in to score on a wild pitch capping off a four run first inning. Breanns Kinney returned to the circle and pitching with the lead the freshman went to work against the D'Youville batters looking to pick up her second win and second win against D'Youville. Kinney would give up two runs in the home first before forcing a ground ball for the third out. With their lead cut in half, the blue and golds bats went back to work doing their damage with two outs. Ashley Veisz (Robbinsville,N.J./Robbinsville) singled with one out and advanced to second on Chenet's single to the gap. Trueman, as she has been all year, came up big for the blue and gold doubling to center scoring Veisz and Chenet. After advancing on a past ball, Trueman would score as Frederick reached on an error as New Haven added back to their lead making it a 7-2 game. In the home second, D'Youville responded scoring another pair cutting it to a three run game again, 7-4. The middle innings saw both pitchers begin to settle in and find their groove, but New Haven's bats did not stay quiet for long as the fifth they broke out again. A one out single by Thorpe got the ball rolling, before Allison Murai (Sammamish, Wash./Skyline) walked to set up two on and one out. Lauren Haversat (Seymour, Conn./Seymoour) would get a pinch hitting opportunity and cashed in singling to center scoring Thorpe from second and advancing Murai to third. Veisz continued the trend of putting the ball in play and good things happening as she forced an error on the third baseman scoring Murai and advancing Haversat to second. Chenet and the top of the order came back up and Chenet scored Haversat with a single to left pushing across the third run of the inning. Trueman would steal the show as with two outs, she doubled to the gap in right-center scoring Veisz and Chenet driving in her third and fourth runs of the games and the fourth and fifth of the inning making it a 12-7 game. In the sixth, New Haven pushed another run across as Haversat doubled to left scoring Stephanie Smith (Rockaway, N.J./Morris Catholic) who walked to lead off the inning bringing the score to 13-7. Kinney departed at the end of the fourth and Skylar Griffin (Berlin, Md./Stephen Decatur) took over for her after Kinney threw four innings giving up seven runs, six earned off nine hits, striking out four. Griffin came on and kept D'Youville off the board allowing only two hits through three innings closing the door and locking up New Haven's second win of the year and second over D'Youville. Trueman's bat exploded for the Chargeres going 2-4 driving in four runs of the Chargers 13 total for the 13-7 win. With the big win, the Chargers looked to keep the offense going as they took on Shepherd in game two of the day. Viana McKinley (North Chesterfield, Va./Monacan) took the circle for the start and kept New Haven in striking distance, but Shepherd did get two runs, one in the first and one in the second. McKinley settled in and kept Shepherd at two runs through five innings but in the sixth gave up two more as Shepherd made it a four run game. Marzia Johnson (Branford, Conn./Branford) got the nod for the seventh inning but gave up two runs in her inning of work as it became a six run game. New Haven would come up short in game two falling 6-0 as the offense combined for three hits in the loss.

The split ends the blue and golds Florida tournament and now return home before they get to return to their home diamond with a revenge game in West Haven as they host Caldwell in a non-conference midweek game. The Chargers and Cougars square off for a double-header on Wednesday March, 20 with first pitch from Charger Softball field at 2:00 p.m. All updates, schedules, and post-game recaps for the team will be available at Newhavenchargers.com.