CASTLETON, Vt. – The Johnson State College softball team fell to Castleton University 12-0, and 9-1, in two North Atlantic Conference (NAC) match-ups on Friday afternoon.
The Badgers fall to 1-5 overall and 0-2 in the NAC while the Spartans improve to 9-5 overall and 3-1 in the NAC.
Castleton 12, Johnson 0 (5 Innings)
Johnson made some noise in the first with a successful bunt attempt from Abby McRae (Milton, Vt). After a pickoff and two strike outs however, the Badgers would remain scoreless in the first.
Castleton got out to a big start in the bottom of the first, scoring 11 runs in the bottom half of the inning
Castleton would tack on one more run in the bottom of the fourth to take the 12-0 victory.
Castleton's Kayla Wood picked up the win, pitching 5 complete innings and allowing one hit while striking out seven. Kaitlynn Woodward (White River, Vt.) was tabbed with the loss for the Badgers allowing nine earned runs and four walks through four innings and striking out one.
Castleton 9, Johnson 1 (5 Innings)
Johnson's Anna Bingham (Island Pond, Vt.) got the Badgers on base in the first inning with a two-out single, but was left on base following a line out.
Castleton was able to get a run across in the bottom of the first due to two walked batters followed by a double.
After Johnson went 1-2-3 in the top of the second inning, Castleton was able to bring two more runs across in the bottom of the inning to make it 3-0 going into the top of the third.
With two outs in the third, McRae singled up the third base line then stole second to set Jennie Moore (Peachem, Vt.) up for an RBI single to make the score 3-1.
Castleton added another run in the bottom of the third on a sacrifice fly to push the lead back to 4-1.
Johnson was able to get runners on base throughout the remainder of the game but failed to bring them around, while Castleton went on to score six more runs to make the final score 9-1 in the host's favor.
Castleton's Taylor Paquette picked up the win allowing one earned run on one hit, and striking out five. Johnson's Hannah Leroux (Albany, Vt.) picked up the loss, allowing seven earned runs on nine hits and five walks through three and a third innings.
Next Up
Johnson will play a non-conference double-header against New England College on Saturday, April 15th, with the first pitch set for 11:00 PM.