May 8, 2005
Box Score
Jersey City, N.J. - The Marist softball team concluded the 2005 season with a doubleheader split at MAAC foe St. Peter's today, winning the opener 4-2 before falling 6-5 in nine innings. The Red Foxes finish the season at 23-22, 9-7 in the MAAC for their best season since 2001 and a 16.5-game improvement over last year. Junior 3B Chrystine McHugh set a Marist single-season record today by crossing home plate for the 39th time.
Marist started Game 1 with an immediate 1-0 lead after junior DP Bridget Hurlman hit an RBI double to bring home McHugh, who had singled to lead off. Freshman RF Alison Catenacci stroked an RBI single in the second, her first career run batted in, giving the squad a 2-0 lead.
St. Peter's would rally to tie the game on two singles by SS Chrissy Gannon in the second and fourth innings, but Marist would score the winning runs in the top of the seventh. With two out, sophomore LF Christine Jakobsen smacked her first career triple and trotted home when Hurlman blasted a Michelle Bair pitch over the left-center field wall for her team-leading seventh home run of the year.
Freshman Megan Rigos tossed her 25th complete game of the year to earn the win, allowing two runs on six hits, walking none and striking out five. Bair allowed four runs on nine hits and a walk and struck out three.
The Red Foxes, needing to win the nightcap to qualify for the MAAC Championships after Manhattan's split with Siena this morning, appeared to be well on their way with a 3-0 lead after three innings thanks to two runs in the first on a Hurlman RBI single and a Jasmery Polanco RBI groundout and McHugh's solo home run in the third.
The Peahens got a run back in the third on catcher Christina Philburn's RBI infield single before Marist extended the lead to 4-1 with Jakobsen's RBI single in the top of the fifth, scoring senior CF Allison Bartley, who had struck out but reached on a passed ball.
St. Peter's would get an RBI single from CF Nikki Melchiorre in the bottom of the fifth to draw within 4-2 before stunning the Red Foxes later in the inning on a three-run homer down the right field line by RF Michelle Casares off starter Kristen Merlino, giving the Peahens a 5-4 lead.
Marist rallied back to tie the game in the top of the sixth as Bartley came up with an RBI infield single to bring home junior shortstop Katie Eskin.
Neither side would score again in regulation as the game went into extra innings. The Red and White put runners on first and second with one out in the eighth, but that situation was quickly snuffed out by a well-turned double play by 3B Julie Saporito.
In the bottom of the ninth, LF Jennifer Cordero led off with a single to center field and advanced to second on a groundout. Rigos, who had come on in relief of Merlino in the sixth inning and was pitching her 27th inning in the past two days, induced Saporito to pop up to second for the second out. The next batter, Melchiorre, would single up the middle, scoring Cordero and bringing a disappointing end to the 2005 season for Marist.
Bair earned the win for St. Peter's, tossing four innings and giving up a run on five hits while fanning three. Rigos surrendered a run on two hits and a walk in four innings with three strikeouts. She ends her rookie season with school freshman records for wins (19) and strikeouts (147).
In 2005, Marist enjoyed its first winning season since 1997, improving from 11-43 a year ago to 22-21 this season. The Red Foxes will return eight of nine starters in 2006, losing only Bartley to graduation.
