Troy, N.Y. – The Mount Saint Mary College Softball team earned a non-conference split on the road at RPI on Thursday, dropping game one 7-4 before rallying for a 2-1 game two victory. Emily Lang (Westtown, N.Y.) drove in the game winning run in the second game, with Bridget Bennett (Gardiner, N.Y.) picking up her ninth win of the season in the circle.
 
Game 1: RPI 7 – Mount Saint Mary 4
The Engineers jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead in the opener, when Stephanie Caudle drove a three-run home run out to right field. The round tripper delivered Victoria Greco and Devan Puhl who reached on an error and singled, respectively, to start the frame.
 
Mount Saint Mary answered with a run in the second when Taylor Canto (Walden, N.Y.) drove in Kathryn Eiler (Merrick, N.Y.) with one out in the inning. Eiler led off the inning with a walk and moved into scoring position on a Bennet base hit.
 
RPI extended its lead by three runs to 7-2 in the home half of the fifth inning when it strung together four hits and took advantage of a Mount Saint Mary error. Courtney McArthur delivered a pair of runs with a double and Lilian Kolehmainen followed with a double to close out the scoring in the inning.
 
Mount Saint Mary mounted a comeback in its final at-bat in game one, plating a pair of runs and leading a runner on base. Canto, Lang and Shannon Sommer (Brewster, N.Y.) singled to lead off the inning with Lang and Sommer driving in runs.
 
Canto finished the opener 3-for-3 at the plate for the Knights with a run and two driven in, with Sommer finishing up 2-for-4 with an RBI. Lang and Bennett each finished the game with a hit and a run batted in for the Knights.
 
Eight different Engineers finished with a hit in the opener, with Puhl going 3-for-4 with two runs scored. Greco scored twice and Caudle finished with three RBI and with one of the team's four extra base hits.
 
Cindy Connoly (Walden, N.Y.) suffered the loss in the circle for the Knights and finished off her team leading 14^th complete game of the season. She allowed six earned runs on seven hits to go along with six strikeouts. Caudle picked up the win in relief, striking out five in 3.2 innings of work.
 
Game 2: Mount Saint Mary 2 – RPI 1
The Knights and Engineers hooked up in a pitchers dual in game two, with RPI breaking through with the game's first run in the bottom of the fourth inning. McArthur walked with one out in the inning and later scored on a two-out triple off the bat of Maddie Provencher.
 
The one run lead held up until the top of the seventh when the Knights broke through with their only two runs of the contest. Connoly singled to lead off the inning and moved to second after Eiler worked a walk.  Following a sacrifice bunt that moved the runners up a base, Canto delivered Connoly with a single to tie the game at 1-1.
 
With the game knotted at a run apiece, Lang shot a two-out single down the right field line to push Eiler across with that proved to be the game winning run.
 
RPI put the lead off runner on in the bottom of the seventh and moved the tying run to scoring position with one out, but Bennett got back-to-back groundouts to end the game.
 
Amanda Almodovar (Goshen, N.Y.) finished game two 2-for-3 at the plate for the Knights with Canto and Lang each going 1-for-3 with an RBI. Connoly recorded a hit, drew a walk and scored a run, with Erin McCann (East Haven, Conn.) scoring for the Knights.
 
Bennett held the Engineers to just five hits in the game as she picked up her team leading ninth win of the season. She surrendered a single earned run and struck out two as she lowered her season earned run average to 2.20.
 
Thursday's split moves Mount Saint Mary to 18-12 overall on the season. The Knights resume conference play on Saturday when they travel to league rival Old Westbury. First pitch with the Panthers is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.