The Ramapo softball team traveled to Florida over spring break to participate in 10 games at THE Spring Games, earning an impressive 8-2 record. They now sit 9-3 for the season.
Ramapo recorded wins against Amherst College, Worcester State University, Middlebury College, University of Wisconsin – River Falls, No. 14 Tufts University and Plattsburgh State during the tournament, but they performed their strongest in their first two games with back-to-back shutouts against Knox College and Wellesley College.
The Roadrunners dominated Knox 22-0 in five innings, their largest win of the tournament. They kicked off the scoring in the second inning with 10 runs and kept the streak going, tallying nine in the third and three in the fourth. Fifth-year Alexis Corra, sophomore Avery Kontura and junior Katie Rygiel all recorded multiple RBIs in this game, while freshman Clay’le Correa-Vanness had a team-high five hits.
Senior pitcher Mahogany Wheeler took the win for Ramapo, allowing only two hits in three innings, and sophomore Brooke Knight wrapped up the game, striking out three batters and walking one in two innings.
Ramapo then went on to defeat Wellesley 9-0. The game had a slow start with Ramapo scoring one run each in the second, fourth and fifth innings, but the team picked up steam at the end with six runs in the sixth inning. The highlight of the Roadrunners’ performance at bat was Kontura’s grand slam in the final inning, which helped her tally the most RBIs for the day with five. Sophomore Kassy Stefanski had a solid performance on the mound, counting two hits, six strikeouts and one walk in the six scoreless innings.
The Roadrunners also played well against Middlebury, winning 16-1 in another five-inning game. Ramapo got on the board early with two runs in the first inning off RBIs from senior Avery Bartolomeo and Kontura. They added another four in the fourth inning and 10 in the fifth, four of which came from a grand slam from Corra. Corra led the team in RBIs with six for the game. Stefanski pitched the entire five innings, allowing five hits and one earned run but striking out two.
Out of Ramapo’s wins, Worcester proved to be their most formidable opponent. With a game that ended 2-1, Worcester only allowed Ramapo seven hits in the seven innings. The Roadrunners’ two runs came from RBIs from Bartolomeo and Corra. Junior pitcher Marissa DiPaolo took the win for her strong performance on the mound, only allowing five hits, one earned run and one walk, and striking out four batters.
In terms of losses, Ramapo fell to Bowdoin College 5-9 and Millikin University 1-6. The major highlight of the game against Bowdoin came right up front with Wheeler bringing in two runs off a home run in the first inning.
Ramapo collected a total of 75 runs across all 10 games while only giving up 28 runs to their opponents, a testament to the team’s all-around excellence in batting, pitching and fielding in this tournament.
Ramapo will next face Mount Saint Mary College today in a doubleheader at home and will start their New Jersey Athletic Conference play against The College of New Jersey on Saturday in another doubleheader at home.
rgatherc@ramapo.edu
Featured photo courtesy of Ramapo Athletics
