Seahawks split on opening day in Florida

CLERMONT, Fla. - Salve Regina University softball (1-1) scored five runs in the first two innings against Bethany College and held on for a 5-4 win over the Bison in the second of two games on opening day for the Seahawks.

Junior infielder Ali Muehlbronner (Glenside, Pa.) skated over to the softball diamond after finishing her third season as a goaltender on Salve Regina women's ice hockey squad. The transition went well as Muehlbronner enjoyed a 4-for-4 day at the plate in Game One against Elizabethtown.

The Blue Jays scored a single run in their first and three more in the third before settling for a 6-1 victory. Elizabethtown completed its 12-game Florida schedule later that day to return to Pennsylvania with a 7-5 record.

Salve Regina scored its lone run against the Blue Jays in the top of the 7th when Courtney Fleming (Wethersfield, Conn.) singled through the left side. Pinch runner Bethany Snow (Thomaston, Maine) advanced to second on a Marissa Simpson (Brimfield, Mass.) single, her second of the game.

Muehlbronner loaded the bases with her single to center field, and Snow came home on a sacrifice fly out to right field by senior Kristen Parolise (Hamden, Conn.).

Against Bethany, seven different Seahawks collected basehits led by Muehlbronner's 2-for-3 (with a double) performance. Simpson led off the first frame with a bunt single. Muehlbronner doubled her to third before Parolise singled in the game's first run.

Jillian Quintana (Denver, Colo.) then walked which would have loaded the bases but Muehlbronner was erased trying to steal home. Megan Jakiela (Meriden, Conn.) reached on a fielder's choice before Jen Cruver (North Haven, Conn.) extended with a grounder that was booted by the Bison first baseman, scoring Quintana.

Freshman Laura Anne Dinan (Monterey, Mass.) brought home the third run of the inning with her first collegiate basehit. Dinan joined the Seahawk softball squad almost immediately after helping lead Salve Regina women's basketball to its seventh Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) championship in the last 11 years. The Seahawks lost a first-round NCAA Women's Basketball Championships contest to William Paterson while playing at King's College on Friday, March 2.

Bethany got one of those runs back in its second inning before Jakiela and Cruver both struck back-to-back RBI singles in the Seahawk second at-bat.

Cruver earned the victorious decision while striking out three Bison in the complete-game effort.

Salve Regina competes against regional rivals Westfield State (1 p.m.) and UMass Boston (3 p.m.) on Sunday.