SALEM, Va. (3/1/14) – The Kean University softball team won a back-and-forth extra-inning battle with host Roanoke College 9-4 before prevailing in a 10-6 slugfest over SUNY New Paltz to sweep through the Beach Blast in the Mountains this weekend. Pitchers Courtney Yard and Rebecca Rotola are both now 2-0 on the year.
Game One vs. Roanoke
Megan Cegielski led off the top of the first for Kean with a basehit, but the Cougars left her on third as the inning ended. In the bottom half of the frame, freshman second baseman Emily Sabo (pictured left) got the third out on a nice diving play up the middle. Tiffany Varriello's sprawling stretch at first ensured that the inning ended scoreless.
After a long at-bat, Cegielski began the third inning with another single, and then Sabo beat out her sacrifice attempt for an infield hit. Kean was able to push the run across on a ground ball double play to move ahead 1-0.
Yard was working on a hitless shutout into the fifth inning, but with two outs the Maroons strung together four consecutive hits – including a 2-RBI triple by Rhea Schleicher – to take a 3-1 lead.
Without losing any time, Kean stormed back in the sixth. Sandra Binkiewicz led off with a walk and Yard singled to left. A wild pitched moved both runners up, and freshman Amanda Berezny delivered the most crucial hit of her young career with a 2-RBI single up the middle to tie the game.
After surrendering those three runs in the fifth, Yard settled down to work a 1-2-3 sixth. The two teams were scoreless in the seventh, so the game moved to an international tiebreaker.
Sabo was placed on second to start the eighth, and her speed allowed her to move to third on Yard's grounder to shortstop, putting runners on the corners. Senior Kelly Moorehead drove in the go-ahead run for the Cougars with a single down the leftfield line.
But things looked bleak for Kean in the home half; a walk and a double to begin things tied the game and put runners on second and third with nobody out. Yard first induced a grounder to Berezny at third that kept the winning run at bay. She then struck out the next two Roanoke hitters – the last on her 157th pitch of the game – to send the game tied into the ninth.
What a ninth it was for the Cougars. The team burst out for five runs on four hits and was also aided by a pair of Roanoke errors in the frame. Cegielski singled and Binkiewicz had a line drive into centerfield to score the go-ahead run placed on second. Yard followed with a sacrifice fly and Berezny singled to right to cap the Cougar scoring.
Yard got the Maroons 1-2-3 without even allowing the paced runner to score as she earned the nine-inning complete game victory. She finished the morning with 11 strikeouts.
Game Two vs. SUNY New Paltz
New Paltz took the early advantage in the day's second game as the Hawks scored one in the top of the first. Kean responded with four basehits in the bottom of the frame by Sabo, Binkiewicz, Yard and Moorehead to plate two runners and double up New Paltz 2-1 at the end of one.
Kean's first three batters reached base in the third; Sabo and Yard both had their second hits of game as Kean increased its lead to two runs.
In the fourth, Emily Bissonnette led off with a ground-rule double through the leftfield fence. Jill Martin, Cegielski and Sabo also had hits in the inning as the Cougars tacked on four runs to pull away.
In a similar pattern to yesterday's start, Rotola threw up zeroes in the middle innings to allow the Cougar comeback.
Both teams were potent offensively in the endgame; The Hawks scored in each of the final three innings, but the Cougars put up a three-spot in the fifth with basehits by Alexis D'Aloisio, Bissonnette and RBI hits by Cegielski and Binkiewicz to keep pace.
Sabo squeezed the last out of the seventh at second base as Kean completed its perfect opening weekend. She finished the four games with a team-leading .615 batting average, while Cegielski finished with five hits on Sunday.
The Cougars will have a week off before jetting to Winter Haven, Florida for the Rebel Spring Games. Kean will open the tournament with a matchup against the College of Mt. St. Joseph on March 10 at 9 a.m.
