The Saint Anselm Hawks softball team entered their double header on Sunday April 9 against American International. The Hawks were able to lock down two impressive victories against the Yellow Jackets, 3-0 and 7-5 respectively. The Hawks were able to improve their record to 22-8-1 so far this season.  

In the first game that resulted in 3-0 victory for the Hawks, sophomore pitcher Morgan Perry threw for seven innings and allowed only one hit in her appearance. Perry improved her record to 12-3.

Both the Hawks and Yellow Jackets were quite quiet on offense for most of this matchup. This was due to the strong pitching display from both teams, which lasted until the fourth inning.

Sophomore outfielder Maggie Murphy would be walked to bring in the first run of the game and break the 0-0 tie. However, the bat of senior catcher Megan Murrell would heat up and put the dagger in American International after she hit a homerun past right center field to drive in two more runs and extend the lead to 3-0 and win the game.

The second game of the double header on Sunday would start out very similar for American International, as their bats started off cold. However, it was an entirely different story for the Hawks as they scored early in the first inning. Sophomore outfielder Shannon Colson scored off of a wild pitch on a strikeout. Murrell would also reemerge as she homered for the second straight game in the inning to extend the lead to 2-0.

Saint Anselm’s offense would not stop soaring as they went on to score two more runs with the help of a sacrifice fly from freshman third basewoman Maddison Leite, and a single from Murphy in the fourth inning to make the game 4-0.

In the fifth, Murphy would walk to bring in another run and make the task for American International’s comeback even more difficult staring down a 5-0 deficit.

Yet, the Yellow Jackets would answer loudly in the sixth inning, as they put up five runs to tie the game off of a Kayla Riley walk and Britany Guzman double more notably. The Hawks looked to be stunned by this surge however they would steady themselves and not look back. Colson would triple to right center and score on a throwing error which brought in another run and bring the Hawks to a 7-5 lead and the win after freshman Abbie Murrell would shut the door on American International. Saint Anselm improved to 9-2-1 in the NE10 conference.

Saint Anselm faced off against Southern New Hampshire in a double header on Monday April 9. They won the first game with a final score of 5-0. However, the Hawks were unsuccessful in the second game as they lost 2-1. The Hawks will face off against SNHU again on Wednesday April 11 at home and then play three back to back games at Assumption on April 14 and 15.