Plourde & Salato Lead UMass Softball In 10-2 Romp Over St. Bonaventure

March 28, 2009

AMHERST, Mass. - A six-run second inning combined with another fine pitching effort to lead #22/18 UMass softball (15-6, 4-0 A-10)to a 10-2 victory over St. Bonaventure (2-16, 0-4 A-10) in five innings on Saturday afternoon at the UMass Softball Complex. Sara Plourde struck out 12 batters while allowing two runs on three hits to earn the victory in the circle. Samantha Salato led the way at the plate, hitting a bases-loaded triple and a two-run home run to give her five RBI on the day.

Plourde (3-0), coming off a no-hitter in just her second career start, came within two of the school record for strikeouts in a five inning game. At one point, the freshman from Bristol, Conn. fanned six-straight and she finished the game with another streak of four-straight. Plourde has struck out 42 batters in 25 2/3 innings pitched.

Carly Normandin led off the bottom of the first inning with a single through the right side, and after stealing second base, scored on Kyllie Magill's attempted sacrifice bunt when pitcher Erin Nargi (1-7) threw the ball away.

UMass had its big inning in the second. After a walk to Michelle Libby and a single by Meghan Carta, Davina Hernandez guided a ball through the right side of the infield to score a run. Magill was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to bring in another and Hernandez later scored on a wild pitch. With the bases loaded and two outs, Salato hit Nargi's 2-2 pitch to deep center field for a triple to drive in all three baserunners and open up a 7-0 UMass lead.

The Bonnies put their runs across the plate in the fourth inning. Kristin Sullivan led off the inning with an infield single and advanced on a single to center by Katie Pazda. After a fielder's choice, Kara Morenus doubled to left-center to plate two runs and make it a 7-2 game.

The Minutewomen tacked on three more runs in the fourth off reliever Diana Phalon. Magill started the inning off by crushing a pitch over the right-center field fence for the first home run of the freshman second baseman's career. Whitney Mollica recorded an infield single in the following at-bat, setting the stage for Salato to hit a bomb to right-center to give the Minutewomen a 10-2 advantage. It was the senior leftfielder's team-leading fifth round-tripper of the season and 18th of her career. She also leads the team with 19 RBI.

The win keeps UMass a perfect 4-0 in Atlantic 10 play and extends its conference winning streak to 41 games.

The Minutewomen continue their eight-game homestand with back-to-back doubleheaders on Wednesday vs. Dartmouth and Thursday vs. Vermont. Both days begin with 2 p.m. first pitches.

Scoreboard