CLERMONT, Fla. – The Haverford College softball team (0-1) suffered a season-opening loss on day one of its trip to Florida for "The Spring Games". The Fords were defeated by York College of Pennsylvania by a final score of 13-3 in five innings.
It's not how the Fords wanted to begin the season in Florida. Senior Maya Casey was on the mound to start and dealt in the opening inning despite a shaky start. Casey would give up a single to York's Elle Meyer, who then stole second and later advanced to third base on a wild pitch. However, Casey struck out two of the following four batters she faced. The senior settled in nicely to leave the Spartans scoreless in the first inning, leaving two players left on base. The Fords first three batters were retired in the bottom of the first, resulting in a 1-2-3 inning for the Spartans.
The sccoring opened in the second inning after a double to right field from York's Emma Wade set up Emma Keller to bring her home with an RBI single. Haverford would surrender two more runs in the top of the third inning, with the big blow coming on an RBI triple from Natalie Decena and a sacrifice fly from Alyssa Harhigh.
The Fords battled back, getting on the board in the bottom of the third. After Emily Reinstadtler was walked and Kaila Uyeda singled to center field, the Fords had two on base with one out. Reinstadtler and Uyeda advanced to third and second base, respectively, after a York error. Now, with two outs, Nikki Kingsland singled to right field to bring in both runners to make the deficit just two runs at 4-2.
Most of the good fortune wore off in the following innings as York rattled off four runs in the fourth inning and six runs in the fifth. The minor errors piled up for the Fords, and the Spartans took advantage of them. Haverford's fall came after finishing the fourth and fifth innings giving up a combined ten runs and nine hits.
The Fords finished the game with nine total hits with three runs scored. Kingsland led the way with two hits and three RBI while Uyeda contributed two hits and the Fords' only extra-base hit on the day.
Softball will continue its Florida trip on Monday with a match-up against Messiah at 9 a.m. The Fords then play Mass.-Dartmouth at 11:30 a.m to wrap up the second day of action in Central Florida.