The Middlebury softball team (11-7, 1-3) picked up an 8-5 win in game one of a three-game NESCAC West series at Hamilton (8-18, 0-7) on Friday afternoon. The teams return to action on Saturday morning with a doubleheader beginning at 9:30 a.m.

The Panthers got on the board first when Ali Della Volpe singled and later scored on a fielder's choice. The Continentals responded in the bottom half of the inning with three runs, two of them unearned.

Middlebury sent five runners across the plate in the fifth, taking a 6-3 lead. Della Volpe reached on an error before Kati Daczkowski and Sarah Freyre each walked to load the bases. Melanie Mandell followed, belting a triple to left field to drive in all three runners. Allison Quigley helped her own cause with a double to center, driving in Mandell. Quigley later scored on a sacrifice fly by Siobhan O'Sullivan.

Hamilton scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth to make it a one-run game, 6-5.

Middlebury picked up a pair of insurance runs in the top of the seventh. Freyre opened the inning with a solo shot down the left-field line. Two batters later, Erin Giles walked before Marybeth Stone singled to right to give the Panthers an 8-5 lead.

Quigley (5-4) threw a one-two-three seventh inning to pick up the complete-game win, allowing just two hits and two earned runs. Zoe Singer (2-6) suffered the loss, giving up six runs on four hits in two innings of work.

Quigley finished 2-4 at the plate with two runs scored and an RBI, while Mandell drove in four runs with a 1-4 effort at the dish.