PITTSFORD, N.Y. (April 9, 2011) – The Stevens Institute of Technology softball team (13-11, 2-2) split two Empire 8 conference games with St. John Fisher College (16-6, 2-2) on Saturday in Western New York. The Ducks took game one 4-3 behind the hot hitting of Naomi Sacks and Clair Strom, who combined to go 6-for-8 in the contest. Fisher evened things up and took the nightcap by a score of 5-2.
Game 1
Cardinal starter Danielle Leone (Manchester, Conn.) and Stevens counterpart Kayla Berardi combined to shut down the opposing offenses over the first three innings of the first game, as neither side allowed a run and Leone carried a no-hitter into the fourth inning.
In that fourth inning, however, Stevens drew first blood as Sacks led off with a single down the third base line and Strom followed with an infield single of her own. The Ducks manufactured a run on the next play, an infield popup that was caught by the Cardinal catcher. After the out, Strom got herself in a rundown long enough to allow Sacks to score, and Stevens took a 1-0 lead.
Berardi threw up another zero in the home half of the inning, but Fisher would tie the game at one with an unearned run in the bottom of the fifth.
In the eventful sixth inning, Sacks again got things going with a leadoff single to right field. Noreen Jordan had a one-out single up the middle and Victoria Webber was hit by a pitch to load the bases with one out. Leone then hit the next Stevens batter, Sarah Parker, with a pitch to force home a run and give the Ducks the lead. With the bases still loaded, Stephanie Senkevich ripped an RBI single to increase the Duck lead to 3-1.
Fisher responded in the bottom of the inning with a two-run homerun from Jessica D'Angelo (Jamestown, N.Y.), which knotted things up again heading into the seventh inning.
Danielle DeFeo reached base on an infield single in the seventh, and Sacks followed that with her third hit of the afternoon to put two on for catcher Clair Strom. Strom delivered what would turn out to be the game-winning RBI, going the other way for a line-drive single to right field and chasing DeFeo home.
The Cardinals threatened as they got their last licks in the seventh, putting the tying run on third, but Berardi slammed the door as she got the final Fisher batter to popup to Sacks at short and earn her ninth win of the season. She pitched a complete game, allowed two earned runs and did not walk a batter while striking out four.
Game 2
The Ducks again held the early lead in the second game, scoring a run in their first turn at bat as Defeo led off the game with a single to the left side and moved to second on a groundout. Strom came through with another two-out RBI single the other way to right, giving Stevens a 1-0 lead.
Pitcher Molly Herforth held Fisher to just one hit over the first two innings of the game, and DeFeo reached on an error in the Stevens third and was brought home by a one-out RBI double to leftfield by Naomi Sacks to make the Duck lead 2-0.
A two-run homer to leftfield by Fisher's Megan Zoerb (Painted Post, N.Y.) in the bottom of the third tied things up again, but this time Stevens couldn't respond as the Cardinals would go on to put up three more runs in the second game and salvage the split with a 5-2 victory. Sarah Stefanon (Perry, N.Y.) earned the win for Fisher.
The Ducks will be back in action tomorrow, where they'll head across town to play Nazareth College in two Empire 8 games beginning at 1 p.m.
