Army West Point Athletics
Army West Point
Yale
Softball Sweeps Yale To Tie School Win Mark (33)
April 26, 2012 | Softball
April 26, 2012
NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Senior Alexis AuBuchon drove in five runs and scored twice going 2-for-5 with a double and home run keying Army's non-league sweep of Yale at Dewitt Family Field Wednesday afternoon. AuBuchon's three-run homer in the top of the seventh in the first game rallied the Black Knights to an 8-6 win over the Bulldogs, and she knocked in both runs in a 2-1 nightcap decision.
Army (33-15) stretched its win streak to 12 straight and tied the school mark for season wins with 33 victories. The Black Knights set the record in 1988 at the Division I level, then equaled it setting a Division I record in head coach Michelle DePolo's rookie year in 2010. It is the fourth time Army has reached the 30-win plateau with the last three recorded at the Division I level.
The Black Knights jumped out to a 1-0 first game lead on Alex Reynolds' RBI double in the top of the first inning, but that proved short lived as the Bulldogs erased it on Sarah Onorato's three-run homer for a 3-1 lead in the home half of that frame.
The Bulldogs added a single run in the bottom of the fifth to boost their lead to 4-1 before Army erupted for four runs on three hits in the top of the sixth with Rachael Duval's bases clearing double the key blow as the Black Knights pulled in front 5-4.
Yale answered with a pair of runs in the bottom half of the sixth to retake the lead 6-5, but Army broke back on top in the seventh when AuBuchon slammed a two-out three-run homer that lifted the Black Knights to an 8-6 lead. Freshman hurler Morgan Lashley made that stand after working her way out of a bases-loaded jam with one out in the bottom of the seventh. The right-hander induced the next batter to pop up to shortstop April Ortenzo in an inning-ending double play in recording her 28th win.
The Black Knights collected nine hits off Yale's Chelsy Dunham (7-14) with Amanda Nguyen going 3-for-4 and scoring twice with Reynolds driving in a run going 2-for-4 at the plate with two runs scored.
Army took the early lead again with a run in the top of the first inning in the nightcap on AuBuchon's RBI double to center field delivering Reynolds, 2-for-4, who tripled. The Black Knights padded their lead to 2-0 in the fifth with AuBuchon driving in Ortenzo on a fielder's choice groundout as Army collected two of its five hits in that frame. Ortenzo beat out an infield single, was sacrificed by Nguyen to second and moved to third on Reynolds' single to the gap in left field before being delivered for the insurance run.
Lashley, who entered the week tied for the most wins in Division I, went the distance in both decisions to tie the school's single-season all-time mark of 29 wins set at the Division II level in 1988 by Colleen McCabe. The native of Davidson, N.C., who shattered Army's season strikeout mark over the weekend, boosted her record to 194 after fanning six against Yale.
After nipping Yale's bases loaded threat on a strikeout and infield popup in the second inning, Lashley did not allow the Bulldogs into scoring position until yielding a two-out double in the fifth inning. She retired five of the next six batters she faced before losing out on the shutout in the bottom of the seventh inning when Yale scored an unearned run.
With one out and runners in the corners, Lashley nipped Yale's rally in the final seventh for the second time on a double play with Reynolds, the second baseman, snaring a line drive and making a quick throw to Ortenzo, covering second, for the final out in leaving the tying and go-ahead runners on base.
Nguyen, the Patriot League's Player of the week, batted .571 going 4-for-7 with two runs scored in the twinbill sweep. Reynolds was 4-for-8 with a triple, her first of the season and career second, and Duval drove in three runs with her lone hit, a double, in the twinbill.
The Black Knights return to action this weekend (April 28-29) when they host defending Patriot League champion Lehigh in a four-game series that will determine the regular-season champion. The Mountain Hawks are 15-1 following their doubleheader sweep of Colgate today in 10-2 and 8-0 mercy rule wins. Army needs to take three of the series to clinch its second league title in three years, while two is the magic number Lehigh needs.
DIAMOND NOTES: The last time Army strung together 12 consecutive wins was in 2005 ... head coach Michelle DePolo, in just her third year at the helm, is just six wins shy of breaking into the 100-win plateau with 94 victories ... Alexis AuBuchon leads Army in batting (.399), runs batted in (36) and total bases (78) and is second in doubles (10) and home runs (three) and tied in hits (57) ... Amanda Nguyen is the leader in runs (34) and hits (64) with April Ortenzo second in runs (32) and shares the second spot in hits with AuBuchon ... her 15 doubles are tied for fourth on the school's season list and just three shy of the leader ... Army has swept nine doubleheaders this season to include five straight after taking two from Yale.
