By Staff Writer Thomas Griffin.

Despite the otherwise difficult season, UMassD softball found solace in winning both halves of a doubleheader against Rhode Island College Saturday Afternoon.

This doubleheader comes two days removed of a difficult doubleheader loss for the Corsairs against Salve Regina. Both halves were lost by a single run each, at scores of 3-4 and 5-6, respectively. The team had fallen from the graces of a .500 record, and were looking for the quickest way to recover.

Their optimal recovery plan, as they would soon find out, would be to face the Rhode Island College Anchorwomen.

The first game of the day began with the Anchorwomen taking an early three-run lead by the start of the fourth quarter.

This would be the only lead that Rhode Island College would take for the entire day, as the Corsairs rattled off four quick runs in the top of the fourth alone. Lindsay Chubbuck managed two RBIs on one single, quickly putting UMassD on the board.

Chubbuck’s play was the catalyst for the Corsairs to start running up the score, and before the end of the fourth, two more RBIs would score from UMassD’s Cierra Sheerin and Leah Major. Another run, this time a dinger from Sheerin, would put the Corsairs ahead 5-3, as it would stay until the end of the first game.

The unsung hero of the first half would be the Corsairs’ pitcher, Jill Richards. Pitching all seven innings, she allowed only three runs on eight hits. Her five strikeouts were instrumental in quickly wrapping up the fourth and fifth innings for Rhode Island College, allowing not a single run for the Anchorwomen during that spree.

The nightcap was much less a fair game of softball – it more accurately represented what it meant to take out one’s athletic frustrations on an inferior opponent. In an errorless game, the Corsairs scored 13 runs on 10 hits and 12 RBIs… in the first four innings. The game ended mercifully in five innings, after Rhode Island College managed to tag two more runs onto an otherwise meaningless game.

Leading the charge for the Corsairs was Kylie Fletcher, whose five RBIs, three of which came from the first grand slam in her career in the second inning, set personal records for scoring in a single game. Jill Richards would later score a three-run homer in the third. Autumn Medeiros, Averi Soares and Nicole McSweeney also padded UMassD’s score by the end of the nightcap.

Obviously key to the Corsairs dominating performance was the metaphorical conga line performed by their batting core from first to home.

When the dust settled, the score stood at an insurmountable 13-3. Additionally, this convincing doubleheader win was enough to push UMassD back to .500 on the season – certainly in the most exciting way possible.

With any luck, the softball team will maintain this momentum through their Sunday doubleheader against Worcester State.