carlie christine

WATERVILLE -- The Colby College softball players spent much of Wednesday afternoon's 9-1 victory over UMaine-Farmington laughing and joking around. To hear senior third baseman Carlie Minichino tell it, that approach had a lot to do with Colby's success.

Colby (13-7) began the season with 10 straight wins in Florida. Back in Maine, the Mules got down to business -- and lost seven of eight. But Wednesday's win, capped by Alex Essman's two-run homer in the bottom of the sixth inning to invoke the mercy rule, was Colby's second in a row.
"We definitely kind of have our swagger back from Florida," Minichino said. "We were trying to be a team that really wasn't us. I think we were trying to be too serious, not really having fun. We play this game because we have a blast and because we love each other. That's what we kind of found again."
Minichino went 4 for 4 with four RBI and Cony graduate Allyson Cheever was 3 for 3 with a walk and three runs. Pitcher Randi Arsenault allowed four hits in six innings while striking out three.

For 41/2 innings, though, the game was tight, with Colby holding a 2-1 lead entering the bottom of the fifth. In the third inning, the Beavers had Colby's Christine Gillespie hung up between first and second, but Gillespie dove back safely to first. With two out, Minichino's bloop single with the bases loaded gave the Mules a 2-0 lead.
UMF (3-6) got within a run in the top of the fifth as Shannon Mitchell led off with a bloop double, went to third on a flyout and scored on a bunt single by Casandra Dyer.

UMF pitcher Liz Bergeron had allowed just three hits over the first four innings, but Colby timed her for nine hits over the final two frames. Cheever, a natural righty who is now a lefty slap hitter, used her speed to beat out a bunt to the pitcher. Alyssa Lepore lashed a double, and Minichino and Tory Starr followed with RBI singles.

"Everybody hitting kind of lit a fire under the next girl," Minichino said. "You didn't want to make the last out."

The Mules are winless in the New England Small College Athletic Conference, but can change that with three games against a young Trinity team on Friday and Saturday.
"I think we're playing pretty damn good right now," Colby coach Dick Bailey said. "We've got nine kids in the batting order that can hit the ball."

UMF, meanwhile, has the meat of its schedule coming up with 16 games over nine days beginning with Saturday's doubleheader at Johnson State. First-year coach Cyndi Pratt says the Beavers "absolutely" have the talent to make some noise in the North Atlantic Conference, but need to play with more confidence and execute on the field.

"That's what we've got to play for, is our conference schedule now," Pratt said. "Our conference season is all next week, so we've got to buckle down and do it."