ORLANDO, FL - Nazareth softball went 1-1 on the third day of competition at the Spring Games in Orlando Florida on Tuesday afternoon, defeating Knox College 12-2 and falling to Smith College 9-1. Three Golden Flyers had home runs on the day, including Kaija Alexander who had two and has had at least one home run on each day of the Spring Games so far.

The Golden Flyers now have an overall record of three wins and two losses.

Nazareth Defeats Knox College in Six Innings 12-2
Nazareth got the bats going early on with four runs in the top of the fourth. With two outs, Kaijah Alexander was Nazareth's first base runner, reaching first on an error. Sarah Ferruzza then knocked her in with a double to score Nazareth's first run. Madison Hicks and Caitlyn Knapp then took their bases on a walk and a hit-by-pitch. Avery Zembeck took advantage of the bases loaded opportunity with a double to right field to score all three base runners and give the Golden Flyers the 4-0 edge over Knox where the score would stay heading into the bottom of the inning.

After a three-up-three-down bottom of the first, Nazareth put up four more runs. The rally started with one out on back-to-back singles from Morgan Russo and Alexander. Ferruzza then grounded out to advance both runners. Hicks then knocked one over the fence for her first collegiate home run to score Nazareth three more runs. Knapp followed suit with a homer of her own, also the first of her college career. Heading into the bottom of the inning, the Golden Flyers led 8-0.

In the bottom of the second, the Golden Flyers gave up one unearned run to make then score 8-1 heading into the third.

After a three batter inning for Nazareth in the top of the third, Knox was able to score another unearned run in the bottom to cut the lead down to six at 8-2.

The two teams were then quiet until the sixth inning, where the Golden Flyers scored another four runs. Julia Maciag led-off the inning with a single which was followed by a double from Russo to score Maciag. Alexander then hit one over the fence to add two more runs to the board. Ferruzza hopped on the hit-train with a double. Macie Vetter then went in to pinch hit and moved Ferruzza to third with a ground-out to shortstop. Bella Romano, also pinch hitting, followed suit with a ground-out RBI to short to score Ferruzza. Heading into the bottom, the Golden Flyers led the Prairie Fire 12-2.

A three-up-three-down bottom of the sixth gave the Golden Flyers a 10 point run-rule win.

Zembeck was in the circle for Nazareth and earned the win with 0 earned runs, one hit, and six strikeouts.

Nazareth Falls to Smith College 9-1
In the top of the first, the Golden Flyers were able to get out of a bases loaded situation to come out of the inning unscathed. In the bottom of the first, Alexander was Nazareth's lone hitter and scorer with her second home run of the day to make the score 1-0 in favor of the Golden Flyers heading into the second.

The two teams handled each other evenly in the second, neither team putting up runs. In the top of the third, Smith was able to get on the board and surpass Nazareth with two runs of their own to go up 2-1.

After holding forcing the Golden Flyers into a three-up-three-down inning at the plate in the bottom of the third, the Pioneers put up two more runs, one earned, one unearned to go up 4-1 in the top of the fourth. Despite getting two runners on base in the bottom of the fourth, the Golden Flyers could not get any runs around and the score stayed 4-1 heading into the fifth.

Smith put up another two in the fifth and kept the Golden Flyers off the bases to go up by five in the fifth.

Smith was able to bring around three more runners in the top of the sixth to go up 9-1 and put the Golden Flyers within the run-rule limit heading into the bottom of the sixth. Despite getting one base runner on, the Golden Flyers were blanked again and Smith College took the 6-inning win at a score of 9-1.

Hicks was credited with the loss, giving up three earned runs in 3.1 innings pitched. Zembeck threw for 1.2 innings, where she had two strikeouts and two earned runs. Ashley Bell also threw for one inning, giving up three earned runs.

The Golden Flyers will be back in action for the last day of the Spring Games on Wednesday March 19 at 2 p.m. against St. Lawrence and 4:15 p.m. against Middlebury.