WMVO Good Times Great Oldies
NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — Making the first pitching start of her senior season, Amanda Harris overwhelmed the Brooklyn College Bulldogs on Friday, chalking up a no-hitter and directing the Kenyon College softball team to an 11-0 run-rule victory.
Harris threw all five innings and faced just one batter more than the minimum. She didn’t yield a walk and she struck out a career-high seven. The only batter to reach base for the Bulldogs was leadoff hitter Paige Alaia-Palacios.
In the top of the fourth inning, Alaia-Palacios tapped a slow grounder to shortstop. Kenyon’s Arianna Jalomo charged, scooped it up, and made a clean throw to first. First baseman Keala Montgomery stretched to meet the throw, but accidentally pulled her foot off the bag, in what, otherwise, would have been an out. Alaia-Palacios went on to steal second base, but Harris shut down the threat with two strikeouts and a flyout.
At the plate, the Owls matched Harris’ impressive showing. Kenyon, now averaging over 14 runs per game, scored six in the first, one in the second, and four more in the third inning.
Big hits in the first frame came from Jalomo, who ripped an RBI double to left center and from Madison Buckwalter, who placed a flyball down the right field line that scored two more for Kenyon. Later, first-years Kinsey White and Leah Kuban added RBI hits to give the Owls a 6-0 early lead.
In the second inning, Montgomery led off with a triple and later came around to score on a Natayla Delsante single up the middle.
In the third, Kenyon built beyond the eight-run edge it needed to prompt the run-rule. The Bulldogs helped out with some sloppy defense, too. White got things started with a single and later came around to score on a play in which two Brooklyn errors allowed two Kenyon runners to score. Jalomo tacked on a sacrifice fly and Montgomery, who reached via an error, came around to score on another error.
The win improved Kenyon to 5-2, while the loss dropped Brooklyn to 0-3.
Harris’ no-hitter was the sixth in program history and the first since the 2009 season.
