Softball sweeps Williams, adding three wins to record

The Panther women dominated Williams last weekend winning both games in a double header, and a game against the Ephs on Friday. They defeated the Ephs 5-0, then 13-2 and 5-1 respectively, bringing their overall record to 12-4 and their NESCAC record to 5-1. Middlebury scored in every inning of their first game, with Megan Margel ’11 breaking the school’s six-year-old hit record with her 143rd hit. She took down the record of 142 hits set by Lauren Guza ’05.
In the first game, Middlebury was up from the start, leading 2-0 in the second inning on only one hit. Aly Downing ’12, aided Margel in crossing the plate with an RBI single. Constantin pitched the first 6 innings, retiring 11 Williams batters, striking out five of them. Seniors Leslie Crawford and Emily Burbridge hit another singles each, with sophomore Jessa Hoffman tying up the win with a RBI double in the sixth. Elizabeth Morris ’14 pitched the last three innings.
In the second game, Middlebury did significant damage in the first three innings, scoring 11 of their 13 home runs. Burbridge and Sarah Boylan ’13 helped with the homeruns in the first inning, with two singles. Kimber Sable ‘14, hitting a double, and Hoffman with a triple helped increase the Panther lead to 6-1 in the second. In the third inning, Middlebury secured the win with hits from Margel hitting a single and Burbridge with a two-run homer. In the top of the fourth inning Williams scored a run with a triple hit by Carley Ameen, but Middlebury came back with two more runs from a groundout hit by Margel and a single by Emma Katz ’13. Senior Ali McAnaney pitched for four innings, improving to 4-1 for the season. Williams had a scoreless inning when Elizabeth Morris ’14 relieved McAnaney for an inning.
In the third game, Williams took the lead in the first inning, scoring a run right off the bat. The Panthers caught up to them in the third inning, however, scoring two runs with a few wild pitches from the Williams pitcher, two errors and Nellie Wood ’11 hitting an RBI single. Middlebury really got going after that, scoring a run in the fourth inning and two in the sixth. Aly Downing ’12 hit an RBI double, allowing Lesenskyj to score a run from third base. Downing got the next run with an RBI single from first-year Alex Scibetta, and she also secured the last run for Middlebury, hitting an RBI double. Geena Constantin ’11, who was recently named NESCAC pitcher of the week, pitched the second game, along with Lesenskyj ’14, who pitched 3.2 innings. Morris relieved Lesenskyj in the seventh inning.
The Panthers were also supposed to play Skidmore in a doubleheader, but the game was canceled due to rain and thunderstorms on Monday, April 11. Coming up for the Lady Panthers are a double header against Castleton on the April 13 and three games against Hamilton on April 15 and 16. Both are away games.