It was a very special opening weekend for the University of Bridgeport softball team.
All told, the Purple Knights went 3-3 on the weekend. Just an average weekend, right?
Sure, on Friday, the team split with Davenport College, falling 5-4 before posting a 4-2 win. On Saturday, two tight losses could have ruined the weekend as UB fell to Saginaw Valley in a doubleheader, 4-2 and 2-1.
Sunday, however, proved to be a day to remember.
The Purple Knights’ 3-1 win over Wheeling proved to be head coach Dawn Stearns’ 300th career victory.
Then, ace pitcher Kaite Burawski, capped the weekend by throwing a no-hitter in UB’s 8-0 win over Walsh.
Burawski was tabbed the Central Atlantic Athletic Conference’s co-pitcher of the week for her on-field exploits. It is her 12th career conference weekly award.
Burawski put together four strong outings as UB began its season with six games in Florida. The lefty capped that stretch with a 1.48 ERA over 23.2 innings pitched. She had 33 strikeouts over the span, as well.
The sixth-year graduate student tossed an 11-strikeout, five-inning no-hitter in the win over Walsh. She allowed just one base runner and rattled off a stretch of seven straight Ks at one point.
As for Stearns, she has been at Bridgeport for 16 years now and is the program’s winningest coach.
According to the UB Softball website, “Stearns came to UB from Mitchell College in 2009, where she served as assistant coach and before that was assistant head coach at Daniel Hand High School in Madison, Conn. Along with her collegiate and high school experience, Stearns has led teams from Shoreline Sting and Outlaws programs since 2003. Dawn is a graduate of Gettysburg College with a BA in Business and Economics. Stearns was a four-year starting catcher and All-Mid Atlantic Conference selection, who still holds the defensive record at Gettysburg with a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage.”
• • •
Yale Notches In-State Win Over CCSU
Last week, the Yale Bulldogs improved to 2-4 on the season by winning the first in-state matchup of the season against Central Connecticut State University.
Yale won the game by a 12-2 score, pounding out eight hits in the game.
Emma Taylor got the win while Isabella Fortini was 2-for-2 with a double and a couple of RBIs. She also scored a pair of runs.
Sophie Woodridge led the team with three RBIs and also scored as the Bulldogs jumped on top 1-0 in the first inning and never looked back.
Lauren Perren, who started the 100th game of her career in this one, also had her third home run of the season and her 13th of her career.
• • •
Gonzalez Off To A Big Start For Quinnipiac
Quinnipiac University softball player Jaylen Gonzales had a big weekend at the Blue Hen Invitational.
In fact, the sophomore out of Newington is off to the best start of her collegiate career.
On Friday as the Bobcats played Morgan State and Syracuse, sweeping both teams by scores of 10-2 (5 innings) and 4-1.
In the win over Morgan State, Gonzales had three RBIs while in the victory over Syracuse she poked an RBI double.
The three RBIs in her first game was a career high for Gonzalez. She added another RBI hit on Sunday, giving her a career-high eight RBIs on the season.
Last year, Gonzalez only appeared in three games and had one hit and one RBI.
She proved she could hit at Newington, however, as she posted a .567 batting average her senior year and in total had 107 hits in her career.
She was a two-time all-state selection for Newington.
Next weekend, Quinnipiac heads to Columbia, Missouri to take part in the Missouri invitational against Princeton, South Dakota State and host Missouri.
• • •
UConn (11-7) Puts Together Another Solid Weekend
The latest weekend of its season saw UConn improve to 11-7 overall with a 4-1 win over Coastal Carolina on Sunday.
Graduate student pitcher Peyton Kinney made her seventh start of the season and pitched well, giving up just one run and one hit with three strikeouts.
Savannah Ring delivered a big two-out double down the left field line scoring Glastonbury’s Rayah Snyder and Cat Petteys to put the Huskies in the lead for good.
Junior pitcher Hope Jenkins came on in relief in the sixth inning to get out of a big jam before giving way to freshman Amber Bretton, who came in to close out the game with her first career save.
Kaitlyn Breslin had home runs in back-to-back games this weekend for the first time in her career and has five RBIs in her last four games.
UConn will open up their Big East slate of games next weekend as the Huskies travel to Villanova for a three-game series with the Wildcats in Philadelphia.
The first game is scheduled for Friday at 3 PM.
• • •
Fairfield Has Weekend Off; Eyes Big Set Of Games At Penn State
The Stags had the weekend off after coming out of the gate with a 2-8 record.
This upcoming weekend, the team heads to the Penn State Softball Invitational where Fairfield will face Canisius on Friday and Saturday along with Penn State, and then face Lafayette and Penn State on Sunday.
Looking even further ahead, however, we will have our next big in-state matchup on Tuesday, March 11, when the Stags travel to CCSU for a 1 p.m. game in New Britain.
• • •
Machado Gives CCSU Its First Win Of The Season In Walk-Off Fashion
Speaking of CCSU, the Blue Devils were able to get their first win of the season with a 2-1 extra-inning over Iona.
The Blue Devils hosted the game in New Britain and it was Cassandra “KC” Machado blasting a two-out, solo home run to left center in the bottom of the eighth inning to give CSU the victory.
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