Schenectady, NY –The Sage College's softball team travelled to nearby Union College for a non-league game. Joanna Chalifoux drove in the winning run in the bottom of the eighth to lift Union College to a 7-6 victory over The Sage Colleges at Alexander Field Tuesday afternoon. The Dutchwomen improved to 5-8 overall while the Gators now stand 8-10.
The contest was tied at 5-5 after the regulation seven innings. Senior Kristen Beikirch (Brockport, NY/Brockport) gave the Gators a 6-5 lead with a two out single to left center to score Courtney Laughlin (Cohoes, NY/Cohoes). In the bottom of the eighth, Union's Courtney Case was placed at second due to the tiebreaker rule, and Camille Corbin walked. Allyson Staats singled in Casey to tie the game at 6-6 then Chalifoux had the game winner, a single to left that brought in Corbin for the 7-6 win.
Casey, Staats and Molly O'Brien led the Dutchwomen with three hits each in the 13 hit attack, and Staats drove in two runs. She also pitched the complete game allowing 10 hits and three earned runs while striking out three. Beikirch had three hits for the Gators and rookie Alexa Silk (Freehold, NY/Greenville) and junior Morgan Dunn (Cohoes, NY/Cohoes) had two hits each. Sage's rookie pitcher Rachael Lashway (Queensbury, NY/Glens Falls) took the loss with two hits and an earned run allowed in 1/3 of an inning.
Union jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning highlighted by an RBI single by O'Brien. Katie Kovage drove in a run in the second for Sage, and an RBI single by Dunn and a sacrifice fly by rookie Alana Vandenburg (Wynantskill, NY/Columbia) tied the game at 3-3 in the top of the fifth. Union took a 4-3 lead in the bottom of that inning on an O'Brien RBI single and made it 5-3 in the sixth on a Staats RBI single. In the top of the seventh one run came in on a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly by sophomore Jessica Adams (Nassau, NY/Columbia) knotted the game at 5-5.
Sage is back in action on April 8 hosting SUNY-Cobleskill in a non-conference double header at 3:30 p.m. at Sage's Robison Field.