Rice Shines in Statesmen Action Against Spartanburg

by Alden Di Dio

SOUTH PRINCE GEORGE, VA - The Richard Bland College of William & Mary softball team went 0-2 on Thursday while hosting Spartanburg Methodist. In game one, the score stood at 10-0 and 7-4 in game two.

The Statesmen move to 7-6 on the season and will travel to USC Sumter for another doubleheader on Saturday, March 14 at 1 & 3 p.m.

Game 1

In the first game on Thursday, the Statesmen struggled to put up runs against the Pioneers. Spartanburg went ahead 2-0 in the first inning with a two run shot by the Pioneer's middle infielder Lauren Reed. Spartanburg Methodist tacked on another 3 runs off an RBI bloop and a two run homer. With the Statesmen down 5-0, Madison Rice singled to center field in an effort to get something started for the Statesmen. Shortly after, Kiara Toler singled on a hard grounder to put runners at the corners with two outs. However, Spartanburg got out of the jam by striking out the final batter in the inning. In the top of the 4th, Reed continued to be a problem for the Statesmen by hitting a two run triple to go ahead 7-0. Spartanburg Methodist overpowered the Statesmen for the remaining 3 innings and added 3 more runs to win 10-0. 

Game 2

In game two, RBC was able to make some adjustments but ultimately came up short of a win. The Statesmen were ahead of the Pioneers in the 2nd after back-to-back doubles from Rachel Watson and Haley Godfrey. However, in the following inning, Spartanburg strung together a double and a single to score two runs. In the bottom of the 3rd, Madison Rice scored the go-ahead run off a double to left field. Spartanburg went ahead of the Statesmen 4-3 in the top of the 5th after a sacrifice fly and a double. In their final chance to stay in the game, Rice hit a scorcher to center field to score Jamie Fields to tie up the game 4-4. This gave the Statesmen the opportunity to score more in extra innings. However, the Pioneers piled on an extra 3 runs to take their second win of the day.