Pitching Woes Continue for the Orange as SU Splits Doubleheader

By Tom Russo

CitrusTV Softball Beat Reporter

FORT COLLINS, Colo. – As the weekend wore on, the bats and the pitching went from top performances to completely unreliable for the Orange in the Colorado State Classic.

These struggles culminated in the concluding doubleheader today as Syracuse (8-13, 0-0 Atlantic Coast) nearly squandered a six-run lead in its 7-6 win over Dayton (7-9, 0-0 Atlantic 10) before being run off the field in five innings by Colorado State (17-4, 0-0 Mountain West) in an 8-0 run-rule loss.

The offense moved in spurts against the Flyers with Michala Maciolek continuing her strong weekend with a pair of two-run doubles. Gabby Teran threw in a two-run triple and Hannah Dossett tacked on an RBI in her 2-3 day.

However, seven of the nine Syracuse hits and all seven runs came in either the second or fifth inning with the offense being largely absent the other five frames.

Plus, after Alexa Romero exited following four shutout innings, Sophie Dandola gave up a run in both the fifth and the sixth.

In the seventh, Dandola gave Syracuse fans a major scare as she was about to blow a six-run lead by giving up a pair of two-run doubles. With the tying run on third and the go-ahead run on second, Dandola got Kelly Fitzgerald, the ninth batter of the inning, to ground out to second to end the game.

What was a scare against Dayton then turned into reality against Colorado State as the Rams handled Miranda Hearn.

Danni Klein launched a two-run homer in the first to open an inning that would be bookended by a two-run single from Ashley Ruiz.

Klein would pick up a third RBI on a sacrifice fly in the second before Ruiz officially blew the game open with a two-run bomb of her own in the third.

To make matters worse, the offense went to a full disappearing act in game two. The Orange picked up only two hits in the entire ballgame, a pair of doubles both coming off the bat of Alex Acevedo.

Syracuse will look to get things going back in the right direction as they head to Lexington to face Kentucky on Wednesday for the final game before conference play begins.

twrusso@syr.edu | @TomRusso24