PITTSFORD, N.Y. (April 10, 2011) – Freshman first baseman Stephanie Senkevich of the Stevens Institute of Technology softball team knocked a ball out of the park in each of the two Stevens victories over Nazareth College on Sunday afternoon. Naomi Sacks, Clair Strom and Noreen Jordan also went deep for the Ducks, whose 4-1 and 13-4 wins moved them to 15-11 on the year and 4-2 in the Empire 8.
Game One
The first game of the day was the epitome of pitcher's duel, as Kayla Berardi and Kelly Kocher (Victor, N.Y.) held both teams scoreless over the first four innings. Naomi Sacks had the only Stevens hit over that time, a two-out double to centerfield in the first.
Stevens escaped of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the fourth with a 5-2-3 double play – Victoria Webber to Brianna Sticco to Senkevich as the game remained scoreless.
However, Berardi blinked first, surrendering a run in the fifth after the Golden Flyers got a two-out RBI single from Kaileigh Ritch (Cassinus, N.Y.). Stevens went quietly in the sixth, but Berardi pitched her way out of another jam in the home half of the sixth to give the Ducks a chance to win.
Sacks led off the final inning with her second double in as many at-bats, this one to left-center. Then sophomore designated player Clair Strom stepped up and connected for a two-run, go-ahead homer – her first of the season - that completely reversed the game and gave the Ducks a 2-1 lead.
After a one-out Sarah Parker walk, Senkevich smashed a two-run home run of her own to give Stevens some breathing room and the team carried a 4-1 lead into the last half of the seventh.
Nazareth got one hit in the seventh, but Berardi punctuated the game with a swinging strikeout and the Ducks took home the game one victory on the strength of the two big flies from Strom and Senkevich and Berardi's complete-game, one-run, seven-strikeout performance.
For her part, Kocher allowed just four total Duck hits, and only one through the game's first six innings.
Game Two
In game two, Stevens raced out to a big lead and built a nice cushion, scoring in all five innings of the run-rule shortened contest.
The Ducks scored three in the first, getting a single to left from starting pitcher Molly Herforth and an RBI double down the leftfield line from Senkevich.
After Herforth set down the Golden Flyers with ease in their turn at bat, Stevens erased all drama from the game in the second inning by hanging five more runs on the board- all with two outs. Danielle DeFeo singled to left center, Herforth walked and Sacks singled to center to drive in DeFeo. Strom turned in an RBI single on the next play, before freshman rightfielder Noreen Jordan sent a shot over the fence for a three-run homerun. The Ducks loaded up the bases again with a Senkevich single, a Webber double and a Lauren Hurley walk as nine straight Stevens hitters reached base before the inning was out.
Sacks provided the fireworks for Stevens in the third, when after a Herforth single she lifted her first homer of the year over the wall for two ribbies.
Sherri Rosenberg kept up the Stevens scoring streak in the fourth, driving in the lone Duck run in the frame.
Herforth continued to cruise through the first four innings, shutting out Nazareth and striking out two.
Senkevich capped the Stevens offensive outburst with her second homer of the day in the fifth inning, a two-run shot that followed a Jennifer Wojtys single. Webber and Rosenberg also had hits in the frame.
Nazareth scored four unearned runs in the last of the fifth, but even that wasn't enough to stave off the mercy rule's application.
Herfoth went the distance for her fifth win of the season, giving up just four hits and not allowing an earned run.
The Ducks will return home on Tuesday after a day off, when they will host Mount Saint Vincent for two games at the Weehawken Waterfront beginning at 4 p.m.
