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BY BEN RAPHEL

In print | March 20, 2008

The Swarthmore softball team had a busy spring break, playing ten games in five days and traveling to North Carolina and Maryland.

After struggling to a 2-4 start, the team won three of their last four games to finish its break with a 5-5 record. Highlights of the trip included a no-hitter from Kathryn Riley ’10 against Wilson College and impressive offensive output from first-years Maggie Vizcarra ’11 and Melissa Emmerson ’11.

“I’m really happy with where we are right now [5-5],” Riley said in an e-mail. “I think that we played well and held our own against very talented and established programs.”

“The competition was really amazing; it was the best we had ever faced on spring break,” Christine Sendelsky ’09 said.

The Garnet began its break by traveling to North Carolina to play a series of three doubleheaders in three days. The first doubleheader was on March 11 at Methodist University. The Monarchs, who are the two-time defending USA South conference tournament champions, proved to be too tough for the Garnet, winning both games. In the first game, Swarthmore was shut out, 5-0. Despite a strong complete game by pitcher Al Zelaski ’09, the Garnet could never get its offense rolling, and only managed four hits during the game.

In the second game of the doubleheader, Swarthmore was able to get on the board, thanks to a two-run single by Vizcarra in the sixth inning. However, the Garnet still fell short by the score of 4-2. Riley pitched a complete game in the losing effort.

On March 12, the team played a twin bill against Peace College, losing a heartbreaking first game but rebounding to win the second game.

The Garnet jumped out to a 4-0 lead in game one, thanks to a two-run home run by Vizcarra in the first inning, followed by a two-run single in the fifth by Katherine Gold ‘08. Peace cut Swarthmore’s lead in half with two runs in the bottom of the fifth. The Pacers delivered a knockout punch by scoring three runs in the seventh and final inning, winning the first game 5-4.

The second game was a different story though, as the resilient Garnet squad never trailed to earn its first victory of the season, by the score of 8-2. Leading the way for Swarthmore were Lauren Walker ’09, Riley, Sendelsky and Vizcarra, all of whom had two hits and one RBI.

“Spring break is always a little different than the rest of the season because you don’t get the opportunity to make corrections the next day at practice because you play consecutive days,” Riley said in an e-mail. “I think that the team did a great job of making corrections and adjustments from game to game and showed how resilient this team is.”

Last Thursday, March 13, Swarthmore split a doubleheader against Guilford College, losing 5-4 in the first game but coming back to take the nightcap, 7-1.

In the first game, the Quakers jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning, and added two more in the bottom of the fourth. Swarthmore attempted to come back in the top of the fifth, as Vizcarra and Emmerson each hit doubles for one and two RBIs, respectively. Emmerson herself would later score in the inning. However, this strong effort was still not enough to overcome the previous deficit, and the Garnet lost the first game to Quakers, 5-4.

In game two, Swarthmore struck in the first inning when Gold hit a two-run single and later scored herself on a wild pitch, to put the Garnet up 3-0. The Garnet never looked back, scoring four more runs during the game and winning 7-1. Riley had another great outing on the mound, giving up only five hits and one run over seven innings.

“The fact that we came through and won our second game was a big deal, because the loss didn’t keep us down,” Emmerson said.

On Saturday, March 15 and Sunday, March 16, the Garnet spent the weekend at Salisbury University in Maryland to compete in the 2008 Sea Gull Tournament. Swarthmore went 3-1 on the weekend, losing only to the host school.

The first game, on Saturday morning against Wilson College, was no contest from the start, and the Garnet rolled to a 3-0 victory. Emmerson hit a two-run single in the top of the first to score Riley and Sendelsky. The Garnet added an insurance run in the fifth, when Walker scored off a Vizcarra single. On the mound, Zelaski pitched a two-hit complete game to pick up her first win of the season. “Our hitting started to click, but we didn’t make any errors on Saturday, so our defense really was key,” Emmerson said.

Saturday afternoon’s game, however, was a different story, and Swarthmore could never get the offense going against Salisbury. The Sea Gulls scored six runs in the second inning en route to a 7-0 victory.

Swarthmore also played two on Sunday, first against Capital College, followed by another game against Wilson.

With the score tied at two during the first game with Capital, Emmerson hit a home run in the top of the sixth inning, bringing Gold home with her in the process, to put the Garnet over the edge. Swarthmore scored four more runs in the top of the seventh, and won by the count of 8-2. Zelaski picked up her second win of the weekend, giving up only three runs during her complete game.

“Al [Zelaski] and Riley both pitched really well,” Sendelsky said. “Even though we only have two pitchers, both can hold their own and are capable of winning games themselves.”

In its second game of the day, Riley pitched the first no-hitter for Swarthmore softball since 1988, as the Garnet cruised to a 17-0 victory over Wilson. The game was stopped short after five innings due to the mercy rule, since Swarthmore had racked up four, five and eight runs in the second, third and fourth innings, respectively.

Riley also led the way offensively, going 3-for-4 with 7 RBIs on the day. In addition, Walker and Lauren Marczi ’11 hit 4-for-4 and 3-for-3 respectively on the day. In the bottom of the fourth, Emmerson hit her second home run of the day, and went 3-for-4 on the game. Overall, the Garnet had 17 total hits during this stellar performance.

“By the end of the week, everyone was contributing to the wins; it was a team effort for sure,” Emmerson said.

The team’s performance over break should be a good sign of things to come.

“This spring break was the next step in building our program here and was great preparation for the remainder of this season, especially conference play, as well as the postseason,” Riley said.

Next up for the Garnet is a doubleheader at Penn State-Berks on Saturday at 1 p.m. The team will be at home next Tuesday for two games against Arcadia University.

“I’m hoping that the harder competition we faced this week prepares us for our upcoming conference games,” Sendelsky said. “I think we’ll be really competitive; we’re a serious hitting team with good depth, so other teams will have to watch out.”

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