NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – The Castleton University softball team mounted a pair of comeback victories on Sunday to move to 4-0. The Spartans trailed Eastern Mennonite 4-1 after one inning of play and went on to win 9-5 and scored the final six runs of the game to defeat King's College 7-6 after trailing by five through four innings.

Miranda Fish finished the day 4-for-6 with three runs scored and two RBI. Machaila Arjavich was 4-for-7 with a walk, two runs, and a double. In addition, Sara Baker had four hits on the day with a pair of RBI. Kate LaPan walked four times and drove in three, while Calli VanGorden had two triples, two runs scored, and drove in two.  

Freshman pitcher Olivia Joy worked five innings in game one to earn the win and pitched two scoreless frames in the second contest to get the save.

Castleton will end its trip on Monday with single games versus Cedar Crest at 9:30 a.m. and Rivier at 1:30 p.m.

Castleton 9, Eastern Mennonite 5

The Spartans struck first with a run in the top of the first on a Fish RBI single, but EMU came roaring back with four of their own in the first on a two-run single by Cassidey Chrisman followed by RBI singles by Emma West and Becca Boone. 

Castleton returned fire with three in the second to tie it up. Arjavich and Makenna Thorne started the inning with singles and moved up on a sacrifice bunt from Hannah Mosher. LaPan walked to load them up, and Baker singled up the middle to score Arjavich from third. Then, Fish brought in another one on a sacrifice fly. Finally, LaPan scored on a muffed throw at first following a dropped third strike. 

Joy settled down and surrendered just one more run in a Korenn Paige RBI single in the third. 

Castleton took the lead for good in the third when LaPan ripped a triple to the left-center field gap to score Thorne and pinch-runner Kennedy O'Dell. In the fourth, a throwing error from the outfield allowed Fish to come all the way around from first on a Devin Millerick single.

The Spartans added on two more when Van Gorden hit an RBI triple and scored later on a wild pitch.

Arjavich ran into trouble in the circle in the seventh when a pair of singles and an infield error loaded the bases. Olivia Bowen made back-to-back superb catches in left field, including a running grab on a ball hit over her head, to end it. 

Castleton 7, King's 6

After falling behind 6-1 through four innings, Castleton scored twice in the fifth inning and four more in the sixth to seal the comeback victory.

Van Gorden smacked her second triple of the day to bring around pinch-runner Hailee Schrader from first base before scoring one batter later when Jamie Boyle doubled.

In the sixth, Arjavich singled to lead off and the bases were loaded with Spartans after consecutive singles by Bowen and Fish. LaPan walked again to make it 6-4, and Baker singled to right that resulted in the tying run scoring from second on an errant relay.

Three batters later, LaPan scored the eventual game-winning run on a wild pitch.

Joy came in and tossed a perfect sixth inning and went on to earn her second save in as many days. With two runners on and one out, Baker fielded a ground ball touched third base for the force but the throw to first was too late to get the batter. Kayla Fac gunned down the would-be tying run at third base wheeling around from first.