Westfield State staged a late comeback attempt, rallying from 5-1 down in the fourth inning, but ultimately falling to the College of Mount St. Vincent (NY), 5-4 in Westfield's final game of a seven day, 10-game trip to the Spring Games on Friday afternoon at the Sleepy Hollow Complex in Leesburg, Fla.
The Owls trailed 5-1 after the Dolphins' Taylor Milata drove in a pair of runs with a base hit in the fourth inning.
Westfield battled for two runs in the top of the fifth as Karly Mastello and Kayla Soucie both reached on singles. The Owls caught a break when the Dolphins threw behind Mastello on a pick off attempt, but she sprinted for third and dove in ahead of the tag, and Soucie advanced to second to put runners at second and third with one out. Mastello scored on a passed ball, and Soucie came home a few pitches later on a wild pitch to trim the lead to 5-3.
In the sixth the Owls wrapped a pair of outs around a Bri Tortora single, then Mastello drove a fly ball to left that was dropped to allow Tortora to score and cut the lead to 5-4.
The Owls went down 1-2-3 in the seventh inning, with CSMV first baseman Katie Moos making a juggling catch of Jess Chenard's foul pop against the fence, holding on for the final out.
Brenna Welch absorbed the pitching loss for the Owls, starting and working around trouble in each of the first three innings while allowing just one run before running into trouble in the fourth. Emily Woodworth worked 2.2 scoreless innings in relief to help bolster Westfield's comeback hopes. Maddie Keigwin rapped out three hits for the Owls.
Hannah Thompson earned the pitching win for the Dolphins, allowing just one earned run in seven innings.
The Owls finish the road trip with a 3-7 overall mark, while Mount St. Vincent improved to 3-7 with the win.