NEWARK, N.J. (March 29, 2011) – The Stevens Institute of Technology softball team topped Rutgers-Newark twice on Tuesday by scores of 12-2 and 11-3 to move their record to 8-6 on the year. The Ducks pounded out 29 hits in the two games and received complete game pitching performances from Kayla Berardi and Molly Herforth to power the sweep.
Game 1
Berardi got things going for Stevens, leading off the game with a single to left, stealing second and moving to third on a wild pitch. Naomi Sacks got her home with a sacrifice fly to give the Ducks the lead. Clair Strom then doubled with two outs and scored on an error, making the score 2-0 Stevens after one.
The Scarlet Raiders made it 2-1 in the second as Gabby Spinella (Cedar Grove, N.J.) led off the frame with a double and scored with two outs on a passed ball.
Danielle DeFeo led the Stevens response in the third with a single to left-center, and Sacks walked to set the stage for a 2-RBI double to leftfield by Sarah Parker, making it 4-1 in favor of the Ducks.
Stevens pulled away in the top of the fourth inning, hanging six runs on the board. Brianna Sticco tripled, and Berardi, Strom and Parker all singled before Stephanie Senkevich blasted a 3-run homer to left field to give Stevens a 10-1 lead and blow the doors off the first game. Freshman Noreen Jordan also had a double in the inning.
Berardi surrendered an unearned run in the home half of the fourth, but Stevens kept the game out of reach in the fifth as Brianna Sticco and Berardi led off with back-to-back singles and the Ducks played small ball to get them both home.
The game was called after the fifth inning due to the run-rule, with Stevens leading 12-2. Every batter in the Stevens lineup reached base, and Berardi struck out seven in five innings to earn her sixth victory of the year.
Game 2
The Ducks did not miss a beat in the day's second game, as they scored a run in both the top of the first and second innings to build a two-run lead for starter Molly Herforth. Berardi, Strom and Senkevich combined three singles for the game's first run and two Scarlet Raider errors aided the nightcap's second tally.
Herforth held Rutgers hitless through the first three innings and scoreless through the first four as Stevens continued to pad its lead with five runs in the fourth. Lauren Hurley, Berardi, Parker, Sacks, Strom and Jordan all had hits in the frame as the Ducks repeated game one's fourth-inning success to make the score 7-0.
Hurley greeted the new Rutgers pitcher in the fifth with a double down the leftfield line, while Berardi and Parker followed with singles. Sacks had an RBI groundout to make the lead 9-0. The Scarlet Raiders avoided the mercy rule, however, by scoring two in the home half of the inning.
Victoria Webber tripled to right-center for Stevens in the sixth and Hurley drove her in with a single, but again Rutgers refused to be run-ruled and scratched out another run on two hits in the bottom of the inning.
Strom and Parker both singled in the seventh as Stevens finally capped its scoring with one more tally in the final frame.
Herforth pitched a complete-game four-hitter in game two, fanning two batters in her second win of the 2011 campaign.
A total of nine errors in the two games doomed the Scarlet Raiders, who managed only eight hits offensively over the same span.
The Ducks will be back in action tomorrow, when they will host the New York City College of Technology Yellow Jackets in two games at the Weehawken Waterfront beginning at 3 p.m.
