Mitchell Overpowers Bay Path In Game One In Softball Action

Immediate Release:

Mitchell used a big middle innings surge and held off a late Bay Path rally to earn a 10–6 win Wednesday afternoon at Alumni Field in New London, Connecticut.

After two scoreless frames, the Mariners struck first in the bottom of the second. Brooke Clancy opened the scoring with a solo home run to left, and Christina Aneiro followed later in the inning with an RBI double to make it 2–0.

Mitchell broke the game open in the third and fourth innings, piling on seven more runs to build a 9–0 cushion. In the third, Olivia DeCicco's RBI single started a four-run frame that also included two unearned runs after a Bay Path error and an RBI single by Kaylee Drago. The fourth inning featured a sacrifice fly by Zoe Battersby, a run that scored on a wild pitch, and Camryn Russo's RBI double as Mitchell extended the lead to nine.

Bay Path finally answered in the fifth behind its biggest swing of the day. Madison Sunderland launched a three-run homer to center—her five-RBI performance accounted for nearly all of Bay Path's offense—and suddenly the visitors were on the board at 9–3. Mitchell responded immediately in the bottom half, adding its 10th run when Cassandra Roman scored during a caught-stealing play.

The Wildcats continued to chip away in the sixth. A Madison Tessmer single plus a Mitchell fielding miscue brought home an unearned run, and Sunderland delivered again with a two-run double to left-center to cut the deficit to 10–6. Mitchell reliever Christina Aneiro worked a clean seventh to close it out.

DeCicco earned the win for Mitchell, striking out seven over six innings while working around six walks and a late Bay Path push. For Bay Path, starter Kaitlyn Kerstetter took the loss after allowing nine runs (six earned) in four innings, with Mitchell drawing 10 walks overall.

Offensively, Mitchell finished with eight hits and received run production from multiple spots: Clancy homered, and RBIs also came from DeCicco, Battersby (sacrifice fly), Aneiro, Russo, and Drago. Bay Path managed five hits, led by Sunderland's home run and two-run double, while Tessmer added a key sixth-inning single as part of the comeback attempt.