HAMILTON – The Colgate softball team battled its way to an 11-5 victory in the opening game of a Saturday doubleheader before falling 2-1 in the series finale pitchers duel at Eaton Street Field.
Senior
Katie Bushee led Colgate offensively for the day, going 5-for-7 at the plate including a 3-for-3 effort in the nightcap. Junior
Holly Geranen batted 4-for-6 on the day with three RBI and two doubles. Senior pitcher
Gillian Murray picked up her first win of the season in the circle in Colgate's 11-5 victory.

Murray started the opener on a high note, striking out the side in the top of the first. The Raider bats followed suit in the bottom of the frame as Bushee led off with a single before first-year
Nicole Rounsavill smacked a two-run home run over the left field fence. Sophomore
Lauren La Terra and first-year
Jordan Miller followed with doubles to give the Raiders a 3-0 lead through one.
Colgate picked up where it left off in the second inning as sophomore
Baillie Jorth drew a leadoff walk and classmate
Meghan Romero reached on a fielder's choice bunt. Bushee followed with a bunt single and the Leopards made a throwing error to allow Jorth to run home. Bushee and Romero had some heads-up base running before the next pitch to execute a double steal and add another Raider run. An RBI single from Geranen tacked on one more in the frame to extend Colgate's lead to 6-0 through two innings.
Murray retired the first 10 batters she faced before the Leopards got an unearned run in the top of the fourth to narrow Colgate's lead to 6-1. The Raiders got the run right back in the bottom of the stanza as a two-out double from Geranen drove home La Terra to put the Colgate lead at 7-1.
The Leopards got three runs back through the next two innings to narrow the Colgate lead to 7-5 after five and a half innings of play. Colgate answered back immediately once again with a four-spot in the bottom of the sixth. The Raiders used six hits, including RBI singles from Geranen, Murray and Jorth, to take an 11-5 advantage through six.
Murray then kept the Leopards off the board in the seventh to earn her first victory of the season with the complete-game effort.
The Leopards struck first in the series finale, using a two-out double and RBI single to take a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. Lafayette pitcher Stephanie Thomas kept Colgate off the board until the third inning. Bushee smacked a one-out double off the centerfield fence and later scored on a Lafayette throwing error to knot the score at 1-1 through three.
Lafayette scored an unearned run in the fourth to go back up by one at 2-1. Griswold kept the Leopards from extending their lead further, but Colgate wasn't able to get anything else off Thomas as the Leopards earned the 2-1 victory.
BOTTOM LINES
- Colgate 11, Lafayette 5
- Lafayette 2, Colgate 1
WON-LOST RECORDS
- Colgate falls to 9-22 overall and 1-8 in the Patriot League.
- Lafayette moves to 6-20 on the season and 3-9 in league action.
KEY RAIDER INFO
- Bushee knocked a team-best five hits on the day, while Geranen finished with four.

- Six other Raiders finished with two hits apiece.
- Rounsavill's home run was her third of the season. The first-year scored a team-best three runs in the two games combined.
- Murray and Rounsavill recorded two RBI apiece.
- Jorth knocked her first career triple in the day's first game.
- The Raiders smacked three extra-base hits in the first inning of the opener.
- Colgate finished the day with eight extra-base hits compared to Lafayette's four.
FACTS & FIGURES
- The Raiders finished the day with a 22-14 hit advantage.
- Colgate's 16 hits in the game one victory tied a season high.
- Murray finished her complete-game win with a line of five runs, only three of which were earned, on eight hits with a season-best five strikeouts in a full 7.0 innings.
- Despite a strong effort, Griswold suffered the loss in the series finale. The pitcher finished with a line of two runs, only one of which was earned, on six hits with four strikeouts in a full 7.0 innings of work.
UP NEXT
- The Raiders return to action with a midweek doubleheader at Cornell Tuesday.
- First pitch from Ithaca, N.Y. is set for 3:30 p.m.
- Colgate then returns home to host Holy Cross next weekend at Eaton Street Field.