WESTFIELD, Mass. – Westfield State split a pair of games on Friday morning, topping Nazareth (NY) College 6-4 before falling to Rutgers-Newark (NJ), 7-3, in the final game of the Owls' spring trip to Naples and Fort Myers, Fla.
Westfield finishes the southern swing with a 5-5 overall record.
In the opener, Katherine Canty spun a complete game and four Owls each had two hits apiece.
Westfield fell behind 2-0 in the top of the first on a pair of RBI singles from the Golden Flyers.
Westfield got one run back on an RBI single from Sabrina Testa, then grabbed the lead in the second inning, putting together three runs on a passed ball, a groundout, and finally Sarah Hough's single to center scored Jordyn Lummus for a 4-2 Westfield lead.
Westfield pushed across single runs in the third, when Lummus' base hit scored Meghan Doyle, and in the fourth, as Mia Alfonso's sac fly scored Hough from third.
Naz got a pair of runs in the top of the sixth, but Canty got out of the jam with a groundout and a pop up to hold the lead at 6-4. The Golden Flyers put two on base in the seventh, but Canty got a strikeout and a groundout to close out the win.
Lummus, Hough, Doyle and Liana Silva all had two hits for Westfield.
Canty (W, 2-0) allowed eight hits and three earned runs, struck out four and walked two.
Brooke Hailston (L, 0-2) took the pitching loss for the Golden Flyers. Shortstop Cassidy Hoffmeier had two hits and scored a run.
In the nightcap, Rutgers-Newark scored twice in the first inning and piled on five more runs in the fourth to jump out to a 7-0 lead, the big blow a 3-run, bases-clearing double from Keelin O'Brien.
Westfield rallied for three runs in the fifth, getting a two-run single from Sarah Bingham. The Owls put two runners aboard in the seventh but went quietly from there.
Gianna Conte (0-3) started and took the pitching loss for the Owls. Madison Umlauf (2-2) started and grabbed the win for the Scarlet Knights, who got 2.2 innings of scoreless relief from Madison DiGiorgio.
Westfield is scheduled to be back in action up north on Wednesday, hosting Elms College if field conditions permit at 3:30 p.m. in Westfield.