MIT softball drops final game of year
Engineers finish with 10-21 record
MIT scored first and took a two-run lead in the top of the third inning, before ultimately falling to 2013 NCAA Division III champion Tufts University at its final game of the 2014 season by a score of 4-3. Tech wrapped up the season with a record of 10-21, while the Jumbos improved to 33-3.
Eleanor E. Fodor ’15 pitched a complete game, allowing seven hits and four runs and striking out three batters in six innings. She also went 1-for-2 and scored the first run of the game. Natalie J. Shifflet ’17 led the Engineers with her two runs, going 1-for-2, and Ali M. Trueworthy ’17 led with her two RBI.
Locked at zero until the top of the third, Fodor led off with a double to right field and made it to third when Shifflet singled to left field and advanced to second on the throw. Both runners scored on a two-RBI double by Trueworthy to give the Cardinal and Gray a slight edge over the Jumbos early on in the game.
Tufts took a one-run lead in the bottom of the inning when Bri Keenan, Jo Clair and Sara Hedtler were able to score off three hits. The Jumbos maintained that edge until the top of the fifth, when the Engineers tied the score at three. Monica C. Shifflet ’17 singled and was out at second when her sister, Natalie Shifflet, reached first on a fielder’s choice. On a Trueworthy single, Natalie Shifflet was able to make it to second.
On a base hit by Mackenzie K. Donnelly ’17, both advanced a base and Shifflet was able to score her second run of the day on an error by the second baseman. The bases were loaded on a single by Victoria M. Jensen ’16, but all three were left on base when the third out occurred. The Jumbos responded in the bottom of the fifth, scoring the game-winning run in the form of a homer by Clair. With zero hits and two left on base in the remaining two innings, the game ended with a Tufts victory.