COLCHESTER, Vt. - The Saint Michael's College softball team hit the field for the first time since 2019 on Saturday, hosting Franklin Pierce University on Doc Jacobs Field and losing both ends of a Northeast-10 Conference doubleheader, 8-0 in six innings and 7-2. The Purple Knights played the earliest home openers in program history.

RECORDS

• Saint Michael's (0-2, 0-2 NE10), Franklin Pierce (2-0, 2-0 NE10)

DOUBLEHEADER NOTES

• Heading into this weekend, the Purple Knights had played only six home games in March in their first 39 seasons (1974-81, 1990-2020), last playing at home during March on March 25, 2012 - against Franklin Pierce.
• Today's date is the earliest Saint Michael's has ever opened its home schedule, bettering the 2012 team by four days.
• Thanks to missing the entire 2020 season due to the pandemic, the Purple Knights had last played on April 28, 2019 - 692 days ago. Saint Michael's last played at home on April 19, 2019 - 701 days ago.
• The Purple Knights' last 97 March games were either on the road or at a neutral site.
• Sophomores Marissa Carignan (Litchfield, N.H./Campbell) and Hope Hiscock (Schenectady, N.Y./Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons School) and first-years Angelica Johns (Westbrook, Maine/Westbrook) and Grace Trautman (Waterford, Wis./Waterford Union) all registered their first career hits, as 11 different Purple Knights made their college debuts.

Game 1
SAINT MICHAEL'S LEADERS

• Sophomore Jenica Botting (Saco, Maine/Thornton Academy), 1 BB
• Sophomore Jackie Cherry (Franklin, Mass./Franklin), 6 IP, 8 H, 8 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 0 K

OPPONENT LEADERS

• Senior Cyrena Zemaitis, 6 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 14 K, no-hitter
• Graduate student Jess Rego, 2-for-4, 1 R, 2 RBI, 1 SB
• Sophomore Ari Rodriguez, 2-for-2, 2 R, 1 RBI, 1 HP
• Senior Gina Hinckley, 1-for-3, 1 R, 2 RBI, 1 HR

THE ACTION

• Zemaitis, who led the NE10 in strikeouts per seven innings as both a first-year and sophomore before taking second in an abbreviated junior season, allowed only Botting to reach base, on a full-count walk to begin the fourth inning. She was erased on a double play, as Zemaitis faced the minimum 18 batters in the six-inning game.
• Cherry set down the first five Ravens before a two-out error led to a pair of unearned runs in the second inning, with first-year Jenna Murray and Rodriguez knocking back-to-back RBI singles.
• Franklin Pierce scored single unearned runs in the third and sixth around Rego's two-out, two-run single in the fourth and Hinckley's two-run homer in the fifth.

Game 2
SAINT MICHAEL'S LEADERS

• Hiscock, 1-for-2, 1 R, 1 BB, 1 2B, 1 SB
• Carignan, 1-for-2, 1 SAC
• Johns, 1-for-3
• Trautman, 1-for-3
• First-year Jenna Hoops (Woodbury, Minn./Visitation School), 1 RBI, 1 SF, caught two runners stealing
• Sophomore Hannah Arruda (Dartmouth, Mass./Dartmouth), 7 IP, 11 H, 7 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 2 K

OPPONENT LEADERS

• First-year Susannah Campos, 3-for-4, 2 RBI, 2 2B
• First-year Ashley Cangiano, 2-for-4, 2 R, 3 RBI, 1 2B
• First-year Samantha Sylvester, 4 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K
• Graduate student Amelia Mamone, 2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, win
• Sophomore Madison Labrie, 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K

GAME FACTS

• The teams were tied at two in the sixth inning before Franklin Pierce scored the final five runs.

THE ACTION

• In a scoreless game, Hoops caught Rodriguez stealing second for the second out of the third inning before Trautman and Johns converted an unconventional 3-4-3 groundout to end the frame.
• In the home half, first-year Marli Welter (Madison, N.J./Madison) reached on an error and stole second before Hoops' sacrifice fly later scored junior pinch-runner Leigh Brandenburg (Duxbury, Mass./Duxbury).
• Hinckley knocked a tying RBI double and Cangiano followed with an RBI single in the fourth, but Hoops limited damage by catching another Raven trying to steal second with runners on the corners and two down.
• Sophomore shortstop Sadie Pratt (Dighton, Mass./Dighton-Rehoboth Regional) ranged for a foul pop toward the out-of-play line for a fifth-inning highlight, and the Purple Knights knotted the game in the bottom half. Hiscock doubled down the line with one out, stole third and scored on a wild pitch.
• Campos doubled in the go-ahead run with one down in the sixth, and Welter made a nice running catch toward the line in left field to end the frame with Campos on third base.
• Trautman led off the bottom portion with a single but moved no further, and Franklin Pierce put the game out of reach with four runs on three hits in the seventh. Cangiano knocked a two-run double before Campos hit an RBI two-bagger, with both hits coming after two were retired.

NEXT SAINT MICHAEL'S GAME

• Tomorrow vs. Franklin Pierce, 1 p.m. doubleheader.