Bell shines for Storm in win over Geneva

CLERMONT, Fla. -- With a day off on Tuesday, the Simpson softball team used the break to its advantage and won 3-1 over Geneva in the early morning contest. The Storm stumbled in the finale on Wednesday and lost 7-4 to Roger Williams.

Simpson is now 5-5 overall and competes against Bridgewater State tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. (CT) and Wheaton at 12:45 p.m. (CT).

Simpson 3, Geneva 1
Emily Bell was dealing from the circle from the start of the game to nearly the finish. Bell set the Golden Tornadoes (3-4) down in order in three of the first five innings and only allowed two baserunners in the span by walking them.

Bell made a mistake in the sixth inning and let her counterpart, Nicole West, get a hold of one for a solo home run, breaking the no-hitter and shutout with one swing. With one out and two runners on base, Bell settled back down and struck out the next two hitters to end the threat.

Bell finished with her third win of the season and had seven strikeouts.

In the seventh, things got interesting once again. The first three Geneva batters reached base, but Bell got the next two batters to pop up and struck out the last one to end the game.

Brynna Bowman got the scoring going for the Storm in the second inning when she grounded out, but scored Kat Velasquez. Madi Bennett added two more to the board with a two-run homer in the fourth.Velasquez notched her second run of the contest.

The Storm had five hits as a team and tallied five walks. Arianna Kim and Velasquez each swiped a base to show their speed.

Roger Williams 7, Simpson 4
The Storm had a scoring threat in the top of the first inning after two runners got on, but both were stranded. Ashley Allen had a hit in the second to try to get some more momentum, but the Hawks (3-4) closed the door on that chance as well.

Roger Williams had a two-out rally in the second and capitalized on a Simpson error. With two runners on, a Hawk batter hit a ball to centerfield and both runners scored and the batter advanced all the way to third on the Storm miscue.

Simpson could not contain the Roger Williams attack and gave up another run in the third.

In the top of the fourth, the Storm countered with three runs to make it a 3-3 game. Bennett tallied her third RBI of the day with a single. Bowman had another RBI as well and Sara Trent scored a runner when she walked with the bases loaded.

The Hawks answered in the bottom half of the inning with four runs to regain the advantage.

In the seventh, the Storm would plate one more after a sacrifice fly from Bell, but that would be all.

Mary Leopold was recorded with the loss after tossing 3.1 innings. Bowman and Reusche ended with two hits each.