Junior Shannon Mongalise |
NIAGARA UNIVERSITY, N.Y. – Just as they did in March, the Niagara University (12-27) and St. Bonaventure University (13-22) softball teams split a doubleheader Wednesday afternoon at Niagara Field. The Purple Eagles won the first game, 3-2, and the Bonnies the second, 11-7.
Niagara returns to action Saturday when it travels to Lawrenceville, N.J., to play Rider University in a doubleheader beginning at noon.
Game 1 - Niagara 3, St. Bonaventure 2
Junior Shannon Mongalise (Bethel Park, Pa.) plated the winning run when she dropped a one-out sacrifice bunt in the bottom of the seventh to score sophomore Ashley Bognar (Tonawanda, N.Y./Cardinal O’Hara).
Mongalise had one of six hits for the Purple Eagles in the game, and senior Linzi Scarfone (Niagara Falls, N.Y./Niagara Falls) had a two-run single in the sixth to scored Niagara’s first two runs of the game.
St. Bonaventure took a 1-0 lead in the fifth when Joellee Brunetto scored on a ground out.
After Scarfone’s two-run single, the Bonnies tied the game in the top of the seventh when Laurie Stone hit her fourth home run of the season.
Freshman Tiffany McCrory (Albuquerque, N.M.) got the win, allowing six hits and an earned run while striking out five.
Game 2 - St. Bonaventure 11, Niagara 7
St. Bonaventure collected six runs on two hits and a Niagara error in the second inning to take an 8-2 lead that it never relinquished.
Both teams scored a pair of runs in the first inning. Lauren Krieger had a RBI single to right field and Kristin Brunetto scored on an error to record St. Bonaventure’s runs. Niagara had back-to-back RBI singles from Scarfone and senior Kristina Kilian (Grand Island, N.Y./Grand Island) to plate its two runs.
The Bonnies blow the game open in the second when Brunetto hit a three-run double to left center and Ashley Bonetto hit a three-run home run to left field.
Niagara answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning when Mongalise hit a RBI double to left field and senior Lauren Dombrowski (Lancaster, N.Y./Lancaster) scored on a St. Bonaventure error.
St. Bonaventure scored two runs in the fourth and another in the fifth to take an 11-4 lead. The Purple Eagles mustered just one run in the fifth and a pair in the sixth.
Kilian was 3 for 4 with two RBI, Scarfone 2 for 4 and Mongalise 2 for 5 with a double.
