The Massachusetts softball team ended its weekend series with George Washington with a losing record, losing two of three games.
Saturday’s game honored the four seniors on the Minutewomen (15-31, 6-16 Atlantic 10)roster, Jessie DiPasquale, Abby Lamson, Jules Shields and Emily Whelan. UMass played with extra fight for its seniors, despite losing 7-2.
“It’s nice to be able to honor and recognize them,” head coach Danielle Henderson said of the senior day festivities.
The Minutewomen struck first on Saturday after Shields hit a double to left-center field to bring in teammate Giana Wameling, making the score 1-0 in the first inning. George Washington (17-26, 7-16 A-10) put the Minutewomen away after a tough seventh inning that they couldn’t seem to get out of. The Colonials made the score 7-2 as the Minutewomen went into the bottom half of the seventh inning.
The result of the game was not a reflection of the duration of the game. The Minutewomen were down at most by a deficit of two throughout the game. The effort from UMass was seen through its play and only fell off in the last inning.
The fourth inning was full of hustle plays from the Minutewomen. With no outs, George Washington’s Ashley Corpuz hit a bomb to left field where Shields was running to catch it. The ball neared the wall and Shields hit it, but grabbed the ball just in time, one out in the inning.
To end the inning, catcher Olivia Packard caught the pitch from DiPasquale, but was quick to notice the runner attempting to steal second base. Packard threw the ball perfectly to her sister Abby Packard to get the runner.
Freshman O. Packard finished out the weekend with her first career home run in extra innings to get UMass its only win of the weekend on Friday, winning 2-0. O. Packard added another hit on Saturday as well.
“I thought she did great,” Henderson said of O. Packard’s performance. “She’s been tough and she comes up clutch for us.”
Henderson said that the difference between the two games on Friday was the mentality.
“They were just playing free and having fun. We got nothing to lose, there shouldn’t be any pressures, so we should just go out there with everything we got,” Henderson said.
UMass was the first to score in each game of the weekend. On Friday’s second game, the Minutewomen went up 4-0 in the fourth inning. The Colonials came back in the sixth inning to add three runs to the board, making the score 4-3.
As George Washington started to figure out pitcher Julianne Bolton’s patterns, they continued to get hits, ending with 12 on the game. Bolton was then switched out for Jenna Bradley, who couldn’t give UMass the spark it needed to come back late.
“I think [Bolton] did a good job. They were starting to hit her, so we made the switch. It wasn’t [Bradley]’s day that day,” Henderson said.
The Minutewomen had another tough seventh inning as George Washington scored five runs to put it on top. Rally caps couldn’t save UMass in the bottom of the seventh, despite A. Packard’s single to bring in Shields. The game ended with a score of 8-5.
UMass will have its last home game of the season on Wednesday against the Merrimack Warriors. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m.
Rachel Toth can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @RachelToth46.
