New/Sortable Box Score 1 | New/Sortable Box Score 2 WINTER HAVEN, Fla. – The Slippery Rock University softball team split a pair of contests Thursday in Winter Haven, Florida at The Spring Games.
 
The Rock (5-9) earned an 8-7 win over Saint Michael's College (2-7) in game one before suffering a 5-1 game two loss to the University of New Haven (4-5).
 
SRU's offense was led by Mackenzie Freeman who ended the day 3-for-7 with her fifth home run of the season to go with a career-high six RBI in addition to scoring one run. Freeman's five homers are the most by a Rock player since Adeline Nicholson had six in 2019.
 
Julia Montie also had two hits in seven at bats with one home run, one RBI and one run scored over two games.
 
GAME ONE: SRU 8 – SMC 7
Freeman got Slippery Rock out to a six-run lead early curtesy of a two-run single in the first inning followed by a grand slam in the fourth as the Purple Knights comeback bid would fall just short as SRU scored two additional runs in the fifth and sixth inning en route to an 8-7 victory.
 
Trailing by six runs after Freeman's hot start, Saint Michael's rallied with seven runs over the final four frames, but came up just short as SRU posted insurance runs in the fifth and sixth courtesy of a solo home run by Montie and a run-scoring single by Julianna Hutchinson to fend off the comeback bid.
 
Spearheading The Rock's game one efforts was Freeman who headlined the contest with a grand slam in addition to going 3-for-4 with six RBI and one run. Her six RBI are tied for the second-most in a single game by a Rock batter since 2003 and the most since Leah Vith's six-RBI day in 2019.
 
Other SRU leaders included Montie with two hits, one run and one home run. Erin Gardner was 1-for-3 with two runs while Arielle Brown went 1-for-4 with two runs. Hutchinson tallied SRU's remaining hit while Regan Hozak and Mikala Swearingen scored one run apiece.
 
Kelsi Anderson (4-3) was the pitcher of record, allowing five runs on seven hits while striking out eight batters over 5.2 innings of work. Claire Zimmerman in a relief appearance allowed two runs on three hits while striking out two batters in 1.1 innings pitched.
 
Purple Knights pitcher Jackie Cherry (1-5) took the loss after allowing six runs on six hits in addition to striking out two batters before giving way to Kelleigh Simpson who allowed two runs on five hits and one strikeout.
 
Saint Michael's offense was led by Devens who went 3-for-5 with two RBI and one run, and Hannah Arruda who was 2-for-2 with one RBI and one run.
 
GAME TWO: UNH 5 – SRU 1
Slippery Rock was unable to finish the day with a perfect record as New Haven scored five straight runs on the way to a 5-1 Chargers victory.
 
Anna Villies scored SRU's lone run in the sixth inning of game two when she led off the inning with a walk before eventually scoring on a New Haven fielding error.
 
After a muted three innings by both teams, Charger Nahtali Simpson scored first in the fourth frame on a sacrifice bunt by Meg Anderson. Slippery Rock's bats continued to be kept largely silent by New Haven pitcher Mia Iodice (1-3) aside from Villies late run while a grand slam by Anderson would supply the Chargers with its four additional runs to seal the 5-1 win.
 
Naomi Childs led SRU with two hits in game two while Gardner went 1-for-3 and Villies tallied The Rock's only run.
 
Alexsa Hurd (0-2) was the pitcher of record after allowing five runs on four hits and three walks in addition to striking out five batters in 5.1 innings pitched before giving way to Chloe Sharman who allowed no hits while striking out one batter and walking just one over the remainder of the game.
 
Iodice took the win after a complete game effort as she allowed just three hits while striking out two batters. New Haven's offense was led by Anderson who brought in all five of UNH's runs.
 
Slippery Rock finishes its time at The Spring Games two games Friday with matchups against Saint Anselm College at 9 a.m. and Post University 11:15 a.m.



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