COLCHESTER, Vt. – The Saint Anselm College softball team found itself in a pair of good ol' fashioned pitching duels Thursday night at Doc Jacobs Field on the campus of Saint Michael's College, with each team taking home a 1-0 victory to split the series. The Purple Knights took the opener, picking up their first win of the season, while Saint Anselm battled back to take the nightcap.

The split drops Saint Anselm to 16-5 overall and 8-3 in Northeast-10 Conference Northeast division play, while Saint Michael's improves to 1-17 overall and 1-7 in league action.

Saint Anselm struggled with Saint Michael's pitching staff—actually, just ace Danielle Brown, who threw every pitch for the Purple Knights in the two-game series. On the day, Brown recorded 13 strikeouts and held Saint Anselm to 1-for-27 at the plate with a runner on base throughout the day.

Freshman leadoff batter Amanda Bickford (Salem, N.H.) went 3-for-4 with three singles, but the rest of the Hawk bats amassed just eight hits against Brown in the first game. Brown effectively gave up just one hit through each of the first six innings and held the Saint Anselm bats silent for much of the afternoon.

Saint Anselm threatened in the top of the first inning with Bickford and senior Hannah Byrne (Lynn, Mass.) on second and third, respectively, but Brown responded with a strikeout to end the inning. The Hawks also left two runners on in the fourth, fifth and seventh innings—the latter of which occurred after consecutive two-out singles by Bickford and Turner—but Brown again came through with a strikeout, and induced a groundout and flyout to get out of each respective jam.

Trask had a no-hitter going through four full innings and just one hit through six full innings, but the Purple Knights lined up its first threat in the bottom of the seventh. With one out, Saint Michael's used three straight singles to load the bases but Trask reeled back and struck out the final two batters to send the game into extras.

With momentum in the home team's dugout the Hawks just couldn't snap their bats into action in the top of the eighth going down in order. Finally, in the home half of the extra frame, a one-out single put the Purple Knights in business, and a misplayed bunt that rolled out of play advanced the runners to second and third still with one out. Saint Anselm shortstop Hannah Paitchel (Pelham, N.H.) took the ensuing hot grounder and tossed home to catcher Pattie Turner (Warwick, R.I.) to keep the game in a scoreless tie, but a clutch single on a 2-1 count found some space in left to score the game-winning RBI. 

Senior Tayla Trask (Lincoln, Maine) tallied nine strikeouts and issued just one walk on the afternoon, but the lack of run support dropped her season record to 9-2 on the year.

Saint Anselm lined up for game two and got off to a hot start with a Bickford leadoff triple. Junior Emily Crannell (Wilmington, Mass.) rocketed what would be the game-winning sacrifice lineout to the centerfielder to score Bickford, as the Hawks would sprinkle just three more hits over the rest of the game. 

Senior hurler Paige Cormier (Rochester, N.H.) put forth another impressive performance in the circle, recording a strikeout with no walks. In fact, she was one batter away from a perfect game until a two-out double in the bottom of the seventh inning broke up the bid. However, an ensuing groundout to Byrne at third base eked out a gut-check victory for the Hawks to salvage the series split and improve Cormier's record to 5-2 on the year.

After playing 11 games in six days, Saint Anselm will take a much-needed day off Friday before returning to action Saturday and Sunday. The Hawks will host Assumption for a pair of weekend twinbills on both days and will honor its five-member senior class on Sunday afternoon between games.

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