WESTFIELD, Mass. – Junior Alexa Silk (Freehold, NY/Greenville) broke the 17 year-old single-season stolen base record in Sage's road sweep at Westfield State Wednesday afternoon. The Gators took game 4-1 while winning game two 5-4.
Silk becomes the third player in program history to steal over 20 bases in a single season. The old record was previous help by Carla Pasquarelli (2004) and Kristen Beikirch (2014) with 20. Silk currently has 23 with 16 games still to be played in the regular season.
Senior Allison Ford (Mechanicville, NY/Mechanicville) (8-3) threw a complete seven innings in the game one win with five strikeouts. The senior is now tied for most wins in the Skyline. At the plate for Sage (12-12), freshman Destiny Wierzbicki (Albany, NY/Troy) went 2-3 while Ford and Silk each had an RBI and a run. Senior Katy Rimawi (Ballston Spa, NY/Ballston Spa) and freshman Kristen Silk (Freehold, NY/Greenville) also had an RBI each while junior Amy Hart (St. Johnsville, NY/Little Falls) led the Gators in scoring with two runs.
Westfield State's (9-9) Emily Woodworth (0-3) picked up the loss on a complete game, two strikeout effort. Bri Tortora, Julia Sullivan and Angelica Banning combined for six hits, one run and one RBI.
After one scoreless inning, Sage went up 1-0 on a Kristen Silk single. The Owls tied the game 1-1 in the bottom of the third on a Sullivan single. The Gators took their second lead of the game in the top of the seventh to go up 4-1 on hits from Alexa Silk, Ford and Rimawi. Westfield State was able to put a runner on base in the bottom of the seventh, but Ford got out of the jam on a fielder's choice to second and a grounder to first.
In a much tighter game two, Sage was led at the plate by Alexa Silk with three hits, three runs and an RBI. Rimawi came up with two RBI's while Ford and sophomore Kiersten Duncan (Millerton, NY/Taconic Hills) combined for four hits. Hart (4-7) was credited with the complete game win on 11 strikeouts, just one shy of her season-high.
Julia Sullivan (2-7) was credited with the loss for the Owls with five strikeouts over seven innings of work. Westfield State was led on the plate by Sullivan going 2-4 with two RBI's. Caitlin Hughes and Emma Dunbar each had two hits, including a triple from Dunbar while Tortora and Maddy Atkocaitis each totaled one RBI. Scoring one run apiece for the Owls were Sullivan, Totora, Dunbar and Maddie Keigwin.
Sage took an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first on groundout RBI's from Rimawi and senior Jessica Adams (Nassua, NY/Columbia). The Gators added to their lead in the top of the third when Alexa Silk scored an unearned run in the top of the third to go up 3-0.
The Owls ended Hart's shutout in the bottom of the sixth on a Sullivan RBI double to cut the lead down to 3-1. Sage responded in the top of the seventh when Aanisah Taylor (Great Barrington, MA/Monument Mountain Regional) and Alexa Silk scored to put Sage up 5-1.
In a must-score situation in the bottom of the seventh, Westfield State plated three runs over five at-bats to cut the lead to 5-4. With two outs and the bases cleared, Hart forced a groundout to third to get out of the inning and take the win.
With their doubles today, Alexa Silk and Duncan tied Katie Kovage's seventh place career doubles with 25. Meanwhile in single-season pitching records, Hart tied eighth place Kelsey Newberg's 68 strikeouts.
Sage returns home tomorrow to take on Skidmore College in a non-conference double-header at Robison Field beginning at 3:30 p.m.
