CLERMONT, Fla. – Playing its first outdoor games of the 2022 season, the Carleton College softball team ended up with a loss and a win on the opening day of Spring Break play. The Knights dropped their Sunshine State opener, 18-1 (5 inn.) to Smith College but bounced back to top McDaniel College, 3-1.
 
Smith 18, Carleton 1 (5 inn.)
Carleton (5-1 overall) grabbed the early lead when Madison Collins (Sr./Elmhurst, Ill./York) doubled home Emma Kartheiser (Jr./Oronoco, Minn./Century) in the top of the first inning, but three errors in the bottom of the frame opened the door for a four-run rally by Smith (2-8 overall).
 
The Pioneers then blew the game open with 10 more runs in the bottom of the second.
 
Smith starting pitcher Abby Fletcher had five strikeouts and no walks while yielding only two hits over her 5.0 innings in the circle.
 
Carleton 3, McDaniel 1
Logan Robinson (Sr./Alexandria, Va./National Cathedral School) tossed the first complete game victory of her career as she limited the Green Terror to only three hits. She carried a shutout into the bottom of the sixth inning.
 
Karthheiser plated the game's first run with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the opening stanza. She scored the eventual game-winning run in the fourth inning following a walk, single by Trina Eichel (Sr./Alameda, Calif./Alameda), and an error. The other Carleton run came across in the fifth inning as Bryanna Schaffer (Fy./San Diego, Calif./Mar Vista) singled and eventually scored on Laurie Avila's (Jr./Sugar Grove, Ill./Oswego) RBI grounder.
 
Schaffer had two of Carleton's six hits in the contest.
 
Up Next for the Knights
Carleton plays two games on Sunday, March 20. First up is a 12:30 p.m. ET contest against SUNY-Cobelskill followed by a 2:45 p.m. game against The College at Old Westbury.