CLERMONT, Fla.-- The sixth-ranked Trine softball team opened the season with a pair of victories Sunday afternoon in the Dot Richardson Spring Games.
The Thunder earned an exciting 5-4 win over St. Mary's (Minn.) in walk-off fashion in game one. The team followed that performance up with a 6-2 victory over Susquehanna to open the season 2-0.
Game One: Trine 5, St. Mary's 4
Freshman Kaylee Fox's walk-off RBI-double with two outs in the bottom of the seventh sent the Thunder home with the victory after having to play from behind most of the afternoon.
Fox's (Vermilion, Ohio/Edison) game-winning hit was the only time Trine led the whole game. The two-out rally started with a Jamie Schnarr (Kettering, Ohio/Kettering) single. Schnarr raced home as Fox came through in the clutch for her first hit and RBI in a Thunder uniform.
Trine got in a hole early, as the Cardinals struck for three runs in the first two innings. Kathi Opsahl knocked in two of those runs with a double in the first. St. Mary's added an unearned run in the second.
An RBI-double by Schnarr in the bottom of the first and a two-run fourth tied the score at 3-3. An RBI-double by Rachel Harris (Uniontown, Ohio/Hoover) and an RBI-single by Leah Hall (Indianapolis, Ind./Franklin Central) accounted for the Thunder runs in the fourth. Hall knocked in two runs in the game.
The two teams traded unearned runs in the sixth to set the stage for the dramatic finish.
Justine Robles (Long Beach, Calif./Lakewood) earned the victory with five innings of shutdown relief work. The junior allowed an unearned run on one hit and fanned eight.
Schnarr notched two hits, while junior Emily McCarty (Mattawan, Mich./Mattawan) picked up the first multi-hit game of her Trine career.
Game Two: Trine 6, Susquehanna 2
Amy Newell (Three Rivers, Mich./Three Rivers) knocked in three runs and Bree Fuller (Hubbardston, Mich./Fulton) turned in a solid start to lead the Thunder to the game two victory.
Newell had two hits, including a two-run homer in the sixth that gave Trine some important insurance runs. RBI-singles by Harris and Hall got things started in the second inning. Kendra Marshall (Leesburg, Ind./Warsaw) also batted in a run for the Thunder.
Fuller struck out seven and surrendered two hits over six frames to earn the victory in her first start of the season.
The Crusaders scored their lone run in the top of the sixth on an RBI-double by Alyssa Cantilini.
Trine will continue competing in the Spring Games tomorrow, when they will face Aurora at 1 p.m. followed by Misericordia at 3 p.m.