New York, NY - The Hunter college softball team defeated their downtown rivals, Baruch College in both games of a double header earlier today. The Hawks narrowly took the first by a score of 2-0 and then won handily, 9-2 in the second game. With the two victories, the Purple and Gold move advance their record to 11-9 overall and remain perfect in league action at 10-0.

Game 1 (Hunter-2 | Baruch-0)
Paige Witalec accounted for two of the Hawks' six hits on the day with Sophia Perez filling the statsheet by going 1-2 with two runs scored, a triple, walk and stolen base. T'ea Panagakos earned the win in the circle after going the full seven innings for a shut out and allowing just two hits while striking out three.

Hunter had runners on first and second with one out in the bottom of the second, but were unable to capitalize and left the two stranded. Through the first three innings, the Bearcats managed just one hit.

In the bottom of the third, Hunter loaded up the bases with the first three batters safely getting on. Baruch managed to record two outs while keeping the bases juiced. On an attempted steal home by Perez which turned into a rundown, the Bearcats had a dropped ball error that allowed a run to score, breaking the deadlock and giving Hunter the 1-0 lead. Alyssa Curiale ended the inning on a strikeout.

In the bottom of the fifth, Perez led off with a triple and then scored on a sac fly from Samantha Marsala to add an insurance run heading into the final two innings. It would be all that they needed as Panagakos and the Hunter defense held the Bearcats at bay to win 2-0.

Game 2 (Hunter-9 | Baruch-2)
Hunter's bats were hot as they combined for 16 hits in the game. Nicole Bowe went 3-4 with a run scored,and two RBI with five other Hawks registering two-hit games. Perez once again added to her stat line with two hits, one run scored, two RBI and a walk. Additionally, Marsala had a two-hit, two-RBI performance at the plate. Leah Dillon hurled all seven innings in the win and gave up just one earned run on 11 hits while striking out four.

Baruch threatened in the top of the third after loading the bases with none out. However, Dillon got Campanelli to strike out, then she had a heads up play to get Schwarts out at home on a grounder for the second out. Petrunti flied out to end the inning and neutralizing the threat. 

Hunter unloaded in the bottom of the fourth with a seven run inning. With one out, the Purple and Gold had six consecutive hits which yielded five runs. After changing pitchers, Marsala ripped a two RBI single to make it 7-0 before Baruch finally got out of the inning. 

The Bearcats responded with two runs in the top of the fifth but Hunter tacked on another two in the bottom of the frame after Curiale started the inning with a single. An RBI single from Bowe and an RBI double from Perez set the scoreboard at 9-2 in favor of Hunter. It proved to be more than enough to hold on for the victory over the final two innings as the Hawks completed the sweep, 9-2.

Up next, the Hawks will host the Bulldogs of Brooklyn College on Friday, April 22 at Randall's Island. First pitch of the double header will be thrown at 3pm.