NORTHFIELD, Minn. -- On a windy afternoon at Bell Field, the Carleton softball team was swept away by the Hamline Pipers, dropping a pair of closely contested games. The Knights were unable to deliver the clutch hit in falling 2-0 in the opener. They led the nightcap after four frames, but Hamline rebounded with a pair of big innings resulting in a 9-2 score.
Starting pitcher Mari Jo Long (Sr./Willmette, Ill./New Trier) fanned nine in a route-going effort for the Knights in game one. She worked out of a four major jams in the game to keep Carleton close.
The Pipers finally broke through in the fifth on a leadoff triple by Jourdan Ulrich and a sacrifice fly. Hamline scored its other run an inning later as Brenna Healy doubled and scored on Heidi Larsen’s two-out single.
Hannah Maras (Madelia, Minn.) had two of Carleton’s four hits off Hamline hurler Jessalyn Weaver, who was the winning pitcher in both games.
In game two, the Knights finally got some clutch hits as Maras’ bases-empty, two-out double sparked a two-run fourth inning, giving the Knights their first lead in 10 days.
Carleton rookie Karen Robinson (Bainbridge Island, Wash.) was doing it all in the second game. Thanks to solid defensive play behind her, she faced the minimum over her first four innings. Additionally, her run-scoring single resulted in both Carleton runs.
The Pipers finally solved Robinson in the fifth. The frame opened with a fielding error followed by a groundball single. Long entered in relief but was greeted by a two-run double off the bat of Ashley Anderberg. Hamline scored three more times in the inning and tacked on four more in the seventh.
Long, Michael Johnson (Jr./Minneapolis, Minn./Blake) and Lisa Friedman (Sr./Pasadena, Calif./Flintridge Preparatory) each had two hits for Carleton in the nightcap.
The Knights will be in search of their first conference triumph when they travel to Macalester College on Monday, April 13.
