CLERMONT, Fla. – The Carthage College softball team concluded their 2016 spring break trip at the Spring Games in Clermont, Florida Wednesday going 1-1 on the day with a 5-2 loss to the Massachusettes Institute of Technology and a 2-0 win over Centre College.
 
The win wraps up a successful week in the Sunshine State that saw the Lady Reds open the 2016 season 6-4. 
 
Reflecting on the week head coach Amy Gillmore said, "Overall I am pretty happy with our performance.  We definitely know what we need to work on.  Bunting is something we really need to work on.  We need to cut down on errors committed.  And we need to work on getting key hits in key situtations.  We had ample opportunities today and through the week to put runs across the plate to put games away but we missed out on the key hits.  Would like to see less strike three looking.  If we can do all those things we will definitely put ourselves in place for the start of conference play."
 
In Wednesday's opener, MIT grabbed a quick 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning to put the Lady Reds down early.  After the Engineers added run in the third, Carthage looked to make a comeback when Kayla Uhwat-Vicicondi sent a double into the right center gap to score Darian Pelson.  However, the Lady Reds missed out on a golden opportunity as they stranded the bases loaded in the inning, only managing the one run.
 
After MIT extended their lead to 5-1, Pelsor hammered her second home run of the season over the center field wall to cut the deficit to 5-2 but it would be as close at the Lady Reds would come.  The homerun ties Pelsor with Abby Thompson for the team lead on the season.
 
In the final game of the Lady Reds' spring break, Carthage manufactured two runs in the second inning starting with Sam McCloud, Makenzie Walker and Vivian Juarez each walking to load the bases with two outs in the inning.  With Shannon Walsh at the dish, Centre's Sidney Spivey bounced a pitch into the dirt that scored McCloud on a wild pitch.  Then, as Centre was trying to make the play at the plate, Centre threw the ball past the covering pitcher to score Walker all the from second on the error.
 
From there it was all Darian Pelsor.  Pelsor, who was making her third start of the season, threw a complete game three hit shutout to earn her second win of the season while striking out just two and walking none.
 
"Darian was dominant today," said Gillmore following the win.  "She picked us up today.  We leaned on her today, and pretty much this entire week offensively, but today it was pitching.  She did everything that was asked of us."
 
Next up for the Lady Reds, Carthage will return to the Midwest for a six-game road trip consisting of three doubleheaders at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater March 30th, North Park University April 4th, and Ripon College April 5th.