KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- No. 3 hitter Julie Blake drove in the tying and winning runs with a one-out single in the bottom of the ninth inning that propelled Haverford College to a 9-8 softball victory over Eastern Connecticut State University Friday afternoon at the Osceola County Softball Complex.

The one-run loss was the fifth  on the spring trip for Eastern (2-8) which scored four times  in the top of the first but managed only three hits the rest of the way.

Earlier in the day, Eastern scored three unearned runs in the fifth on three hits to cut a deficit to one run, but Washington College relief pitcher Milly Kawabata  fanned five over the final two innings to preserve the Shorewomen's 7-6 victory.

Freshman Alexis Tyrrell (Torrington) had two of Eastern's eight hits against Washington (7-11). Freshman Kat Devolve (Plainfield) had three hits and a walked and scored two runs, and sophomore Morgan Sanson (Thomason) had two hits and scored two runs against Haverford (8-1), a winner of six in a row. Tyrrell also scored twice.

Utilizing the international tie-breaker rule against Haverford, which places a runner at second to start the inning beginning with the eighth, both teams scored once in the eighth to extend the game. The visiting team in the game, Eastern pushed across its run when sophomore third baseman Crysta Wolski (West Hartford) bunted Tyrrell to third, and with two out, Devolve had an RBI single to center on the first pitch from relief pitcher Johanna Batterton. The Warriors could not pad their lead, however, when Batterton got an inning-ending ground ball to second after sophomore catcher Megan Hodgdon (Cheshire) had sent Devolve into scoring position when she reached on Haverford's fifth error of the game.

Eastern's failure to add an insurance run in the top of the eighth was costly as Haverford tied the game in the bottom of the eighth on Rachel Wolfson's one-out RBI single to right that chased sophomore starting pitcher Haleigh Cardello (Litchfield, NH) in favor of Sanson.

The Warriors took another lead against Haverford with a run in the top of the ninth on senior rightfielder Jessica Seymour's (Barkhamsted) sacrifice bunt and a wild pitch that plated Sanson from third, but Haverford ended it in the bottom of the ninth. With two runners in scoring position and one out, Blake lashed the first pitch she saw into left field, scoring Nicole Swisher and Ashley Sisto. Eastern was unable to retire Blake in five plate appearances on the day. She drove in Haverford's first two runs in the bottom of the first with a double and came around to score as Haverford quickly cut Eastern's early 4-0 lead to 4-3. She also walked and scored in the second inning to give Haverford a 5-4 lead, singled leading off the fifth to break a 5-5 tie in the fifth, and reached on an infield single in the seventh before Wolski snared a line drive at third and Cardello retired Jessica Koshinski on a fly ball to center in the seventh to send the game into extra innings. Blake's third and fourth RBIs of the game in the ninth sent Eastern to its fifth one-run loss --following a ten-inning 8-7 win over Webster University on opening day  -- on the trip.

The Warriors broke quickly against Haverford, scoring four times in the first highlighted by sophomore shortstop Sara Pisanelli's (Walliingford) second home run in two days -- a two-run shot that scored Tyrrell, who had opened the game by reaching on an error by pitcher Briana Quinn. Devolve followed Pisanelli's blast to left with a double to right-center, and later scored the third run on a wild pitch. Seymour's two-out single to left made it 4-0.

Trailing 5-4, Eastern tied the game in the third on Sanson's RBI single to center which sent home Devolve, who had singled to open the inning and moved up on a sacrifice bunt by Hodgdon. Down 6-5, the Warriors again tied the score in the sixth with an unearned run without the aid of a hit. Facing new pitcher Batterton, Pisanelli reached on a one-out infield error, moved to second on a wild pitch, to third on another sacrifice bunt by Hodgdon, and scored on another wild pitch.

After a shaky first inning, however, Batterton settled down, giving up only one hit -- Devolve's go-ahead single in the eighth -- over the final three innings.

With freshman pitcher/first baseman Morgan Bolduk (Vernon) sitting out the final four games with an injury, sophomore second baseman Jackie Lewis (Mystic) -- one of the team's hottest hitters and sure-handed fielders -- left the game against Washington after injuring herself with a dive trying (unsuccessfully) to tag out Rachel Butler attempting to advance from first to second base during Washington's four-run third inning.

Coming off an encouraging 7-5 win over No. 15 Ramapo College Thursday, the Warriors couldn't maintain that momentum against Washington, which lso concluded its Florida trip at 2-8 with a number of close losses. Sanson, who pitched the first five innings for her first win of the year against Ramapo, tossed her first complete game of the season against Washington, giving up only eight hits and three walks while fanning four. With the exception of the third inning -- when the Shorewomen put togeter five of their hits and scored four runs to move out to a 6-3 lead -- Sanson never allowed more than a single hit in an inning.

Trailing 7-3 to Washington, Eastern rallied for three unearned runs to cut the gap to 7-6. Washington commited two of its four errors in the game in the inning and the Warrors getting hits from Cardello leading off the inning and Tyrrell's two-out single to center. All three of Eastern's runs crossed the plate directly as a result of two infield errors.

Washington starting pitcher Taylor Harcum was replaced by Kawabata to start the sixth. Kawabata, who had pitched two scoreless innings earlier in the day to help her team rally from a 10-0 deficit for an 11-10 win over New York power SUNY Cortland, was sensational en route to her second save of the season. The 5-foot-4 inch senior righty mowed down all six batters she faced, getting the first five on strikes (three on full counts) and ending the game with a fly ball to center on another 3-2 pitch.

Tyrrell collected two of Eastern's eight hits against the Shorewomen, but no other Eastern batter managed more than one. Sanson surrendered seven runs on six hits over the first four innings but settled down to close out with three scorless innings, retiring eight of nine at one point beginning with the final two outs of the fourth. Left field substitute Kayla Santos (Peabody, MA) made a shoestring catch for the first out of the fifth after Lewis' injury necessited moving leftfielder Seymour to center and centerfielder Tyrrell to second to start the inning. The fly ball to Santos was the only out recorded by an Eastern outfielder over the final 5 2/3 innings.

 In her second start in left field, first-year sophomore Sabrina LeMere (North Branford) was busy defensivley against Haverford, handling five fly balls flawlessley despite a high sky and bright sun. At third, Wolski wrapped up a productive trip (only one error) with three putouts -- two on line drives  -- and two assists on the day.

 Eastern visits Springfield College Wednesday for a 3 p.m. non-conference doubleheader in its northern debut.