WENHAM, Mass.—Senior Courtney Blake (East Islip, N.Y.) pitched a no-hitter and Endicott came back twice in game two to sweep Gordon in the Commonwealth Coast Conference opening doubleheader. The Gulls took game one 3-0 behind Blake's effort in the circle and completed a comeback in the eighth inning for a 7-5 win in game two.
Gordon falls to 2-9-1 on the year and 0-3-1 at home. The Gulls continued strong play from spring break, improving to 7-5 and 2-0 in the CCC.
Game One: Endicott 3 – 0 Gordon Offense was hard to come by in the opener with both starters pitching exceptionally well. While Blake was holding the Scots off the board,
Emily Kline (Park Ridge, N.J.) went through five innings without giving up a run to the Gulls, relying on some stellar defense from the infield.
Endicott finally broke through the Gordon defense in the sixth inning. The Fighting Scots were able to get two of the first three Gulls to foul out and came within a pitch of getting out of the inning, but Margaret Martzolf (Port Saint Lucie, Fla.) broke the scoreless tie with a single to the gap in left on a 3-2 pitch. Martzolf scored on the next play when Samantha DiBella (Danvers, Mass.) doubled to the wall.
The Gulls added another in the top of the seventh on a single by Chrissy Gikas (Danvas, Mass.) and Blake closed Gordon out in the bottom half of the frame.
Game Two: Endicott 7 – 5 Gordon / 8 innings Gordon got the scoring started early in the contest, as
Marissa Meenan (Wayne, Pa.) led off the bottom of the first with a homer to straight away center. The Scots grew their lead to three in the second inning when the first three batters reached on bunt singles.
Emily Burkhart (Manheim, Pa.) earned a walk to bring in Gordon's second run and Meenan added her second RBI of the game with a sacrifice fly to right field.
Endicott struck back in the third inning with the middle of their lineup coming up big. Julia McNeill (Smithtown, N.Y) doubled in a run with no outs before Martzolf crushed a pitch into the webbing in left to tie the game in an instant.
The Fighting Scots grabbed the lead back in the fourth inning when
Carleigh Petersen (North Hills, Calif.) led off the inning with a double before getting brought in to score on a groundout.
Sarah Ryder (Telford, Pa.) extended the Gordon lead in the fifth inning with a solo shot to left center.
However, Endicott did not allow the Scots to celebrate a lead for very long with a pair of unearned runs in the sixth. Endicott only notched one hit in the inning, but worked the base paths well to score twice with two outs.
Gordon had chances to end the game in the sixth and seventh frames, but could not convert with runners in scoring position to force extra innings.
Endicott took advantage of the international tiebreaker rule with a two-RBI double by Jamie Corda (Higganum, Conn.) and Blake earned her second victory of the day by shutting down the Scots in the bottom of the eighth.
Quick Hits- Blake went from 2-3 to 4-3 after pitching 10.2 innings and striking out 11 batters between the two games.
- Ryder, Jenkerson and Petersen all had two hits in game two for the Scots.
- Martzolf finished with a day-high three RBI.
On Deck Gordon has a week off before returning to the diamond for an away doubleheader at Rivier in Nashua. Endicott is also off for an extended period, taking the field next Thursday against Thomas in Beverly.
