Alba's late double sparks comeback win

Alba’s late double sparks comeback win

By Mark Spillane, QBSN Staff Writer

Junior shortstop, Alex Alba (Sylmar, Calif.) stepped to the plate with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning with her Quinnipiac Bobcats softball team (19-11, 6-4 NEC) trailing the University of Connecticut Huskies (17-15, 6-3 Big East) by the score of 4-2.

Alba delivered the hit of the game as she laced UConn starter Kiki Saveriano’s pitch into the left-centerfield gap to tie the game at four.  The shot knocked in junior Bridget Figmic (Stratford, Conn.) and senior Ashley Heiberger (Sioux Falls, S.D.), and put Alba into scoring position at second base with a double.

 “I was just trying to do my best to have a quality at-bat, and put my best swing on whatever I was going to swing at,” Alba said.

Best swing or not, it was good enough for the Bobcats today.

Figmic got the inning started by drawing a one-out walk, before Heiberger reached after being hit by a pitch. Then junior Kortney Kesses (Woodbridge, Conn.) advanced the two with a sacrifice bunt, setting up Alba for the hit.

Luckily for the Bobcats, Alba wasn’t done. With junior Lauren Salgado (Covina, Calif.) at the plate, Alba scampered to third base on a wild pitch. With the winning run on third base, Salgado smacked a hard ground ball to the shortstop, Emily O’Donnell. O’Donnell could not make the play as Salgado reached first on the error, and Alba scored to give the Bobcats a 5-4 lead.

Alba, typically Quinnipiac’s number three-hitter, batted leadoff today, and came through with her 15^th and 16^th RBI this season.

One Bobcat who was in her normal spot was senior ace-pitcher, Heather Schwartzburg (Mission Viejo, Calif.). Schwartzburg pitched all seven innings to get the win, but did not make it easy on herself. With the Bobcats up 5-4 heading into the seventh inning, the Huskies sent the top of their order to the plate.

Schwartzburg hit leadoff batter, Jennifer Ward, for the third time in the game to start the inning, and Ward promptly stole second base. With nobody out, and the tying run in scoring position, Schwartzburg struck out O’Donnell looking before getting Marissa Guches to line out to right field.

Ward then advanced to third base on a wild pitch, before Schwartzburg walked the Huskies cleanup hitter, Amy Vaughan. With the game on the line, Schwartzburg slammed the door shut by striking out Brittany Duclos to preserve the 5-4 victory.

With the win, Schwartzburg improved to 12-3 on the year and increased her season strikeout total by six to 125. Sophomore Katie Alfiere (Beacon Falls, Conn.) went 2-for-3 and scored twice to bump her average up to .257 on the year.

Quinnipiac coach Germaine Fairchild attributed the three hit batters to Schwartzburg’s attempts to get more break out of her screwball, but made it no secret that the in-state rivalry means something.

“Getting a game like this, like a UConn, a big school, you know there’s a lot of bragging rights riding on it, and to get a win gives us a ton of confidence going into the weekend,” she said.

This weekend the Bobcats get back out on the diamond against NEC competitors, Wagner on Saturday and Fairleigh Dickinson on Sunday.