DELAND, Fla. – Colgate staged another late comeback to defeat Bethune-Cookman 6-5 in eight innings and capped off its doubleheader sweep with a 2-0 victory over Stetson in the nightcap on Friday.
Morgan Farrah jammed a home run in each game and finished with three hits, two RBIs, and two runs scored to lead the offense.
Sabrina Odierno and
Jordan Miller both tallied two hits on the day.
Bailey Misken tossed her fourth shutout of the season in the nightcap, scattering five hits and striking out two over seven scoreless innings to improve to 6-1 on the season.
Bella Crow picked up her first win in the circle against Bethune-Cookman, allowing one unearned run in 2 2/3 innings of relief.
Game 1: Colgate 6, Bethune-Cookman 5 (8)
The opening game of Friday's doubleheader started as a pitching duel and turned into a scoring frenzy. Both starting pitchers put up zeroes through the first four innings before 11 combined runs were scored over the last four frames of the eight-inning marathon.
Colgate manufactured the first run in the bottom of the fifth.
Rebecca Johnson led off with a walk and stole second to reach scoring position. Odierno moved her over to third on a groundout, and
Virginia Irby brought her home with a sacrifice fly to put the Raiders in front 1-0.
Jess Hay was dealing through five, working around a pair of singles that barely left the infield. But Bethune-Cookman sent eight batters to the plate in a four-run top of the sixth. A two-run double and back-to-back singles gave the Wildcats a 4-1 advantage.
The Raiders shot right back with a four-spot of their own in the home half of the sixth. Farrah started it off with a solo shot to straightaway center.
Steph Jacoby and
Rachel Carney kept the rally going with back-to-back singles, and then Bethune-Cookman's pitching suddenly lost the strike zone. Three straight bases-loaded walks from Irby,
Nicole Rounsavill, and
Mia Guevarra carried the Raiders to a 5-4 lead.
Bethune-Cookman scratched the tying run across in the seventh, but Colgate answered once more in the bottom of the eighth. Johnson was placed at second base and came around to score on a walk-off double from Rounsavill to complete the 6-5 comeback victory.
Game 2: Colgate 2, Stetson 0
Colgate rode Misken's dominance in the nightcap to seal the sweep. The freshman flame thrower allowed five hits, all of which were singles, and buckled down with timely pitches to escape late jams.
Farrah belted a solo homer to left field in the top of the second and that was the only run Colgate needed. Guevarra added an insurance run in the sixth, scoring Irby from third with an RBI single to extend the Raider lead to 2-0.
Stetson threatened for the first time in the fifth. Alyssa Gilman reached on an infield single, stole second, and advanced to third on a wild pitch. Riley Russell was hit by a pitch and swiped second, but Misken won a 10-pitch at-bat that ended with a swing and a miss to strand both runners in scoring position.
Misken closed down the seventh in similar fashion after the first two Stetson batters reached base. A groundout advanced both runners into scoring position, but a shallow fly ball was caught by Miller in foul territory and the Raiders finished off the 2-0 shutout.
QUOTES
Colgate Head Coach Marissa Lamison-Myers
On the two wins:
"It was great to snag two wins today. In both games, our pitchers really kept us in the game with their ability to hold off the opposition. It gave our offense enough time to come through in big moments. In order to keep the momentum going we need to jump out and be more aggressive on the offensive side of the ball and limit mistakes on defense."
GAME NOTES
• Colgate blanked Stetson for the first time in 17 head-to-head meetings dating back to 1989.
• The shutout was Colgate's fourth of the season, already one shy of last year's total.
• Misken has six of Colgate's seven wins and she lowered her ERA to 1.16 in 42 1/3 innings.
• Farrah has homered in three of her last four games and now has four on the year.
• She is already more than halfway to her home run total (6) from her freshman season.
• Farrah leads the team with an active seven-game hitting streak.
• The Raiders as a team have popped eight home runs over their last five games.
UP NEXT
Colgate (8-4) takes on Valparaiso (10 a.m.) and Stetson (5 p.m.) in another doubleheader Saturday.
