By Celia Balf
Staff Writer
sports.asp@gmail.com
April 14, 2015
Vicky McFarland had a strong series against UMBC as UAlbany won 2 of 3 games. Photo by Aaron Cheris.
Despite wind and a setback in game one of a three game conference series, the University at Albany softball team rebounded to take 2 of 3 games from the UMBC Retrievers at Albany Field in a weekend series.
The Retrievers came into this series with a perfect 6-0 conference record, however the Great Danes came in looking to win their second straight conference series.
With a lot to play for, and the unavoidable impact of the wind towards both teams, the game fell into the favor of the Retrievers (17-14, 7-2 America East) early. Danielle O’Neill hit first for the retrievers and got on second base after driving the ball to far left field. Devin Durando, UAlbany’s (18-9, 4-2 America East) freshman walked the next two players, and the Retrievers got on the board after Kelly Lane lined a hit bringing in O’Neill home.
Durando quickly bounced back for the Danes by throwing back-to-back strikeouts. With the Danes up at bat, the momentum, or the wind, was now with them. With the bases loaded, Marlin Solano hit a grounder to third which brought in Vicky McFarland. The score was tied at 1-1 after one inning.
The second and third innings went scoreless, however in the top of the fifth the Retrievers got off three singles, which gave them the lead 3-1.
The Great Danes cut the score to one off of a double by Maggie Cocks. UAlbany’s Elizabeth Snow hit a single to the left, with just one out remaining. Later, Kelly Costello got a hit off to left field bringing in Cocks to bring the score to 3-2.
The Great Danes weren’t able to pull away from the 3-2 score on Saturday, however the series proved to be far from over. Senior Jessica Tate said, “overall we did really well this weekend. We struggled a bit on Saturday and took an unfortunate loss but we made the adjustments necessary to get both wins today.”
The Great Danes had better conditions to finish the series claiming game two, 11-6 and game three 1-0 on Sunday afternoon.
“One of our coaches told us before the game to jus have fun with it and that’s exactly what we did,” Tate said. “We came together as a team and stayed positive even when we were losing.”
The positive atmosphere and big hits broke UMBC’s perfect conference record and will be great momentum for the Great Danes moving onto their next opponents. UAlbany will host Colgate and Tuesday and Cornell Wednesday at Albany Field. Both will be doubleheaders starting at 3 p.m.
