FORT MEYERS, Fla. (March 12, 2012) – The Stevens Institute of Technology softball team dropped a pair of one-run decisions to Ohio Wesleyan University and Geneva College by scores of 6-5 and 2-1, respectively, on Monday morning. Sophomore shortstop Danielle DeFeo (Andover, N.J.) had five hits to lead the Ducks offensively over the two contests.

Game One

Stevens got on the board early in the first game. Kayla Berardi (Brookfield, Conn.) laid down a perfect basehit bunt to start and DeFeo slapped a single through the left side. Clair Strom (El Paso, Texas) was hit by a pitch to load the bases and Stephanie Senkevich (Washington, N.J.) brought in a run with an RBI groundout as the Ducks took a 1-0 lead.

Berardi pitched well over the first two innings, holding the Battling Bishops hitless over that span.

After a DeFeo single in the top of the third, Strom launched a long homerun down the leftfield line to give Stevens the 3-0 lead. It was the first homer for the Ducks this season.

The Battling Bishops scored one in the third inning, as they forced in a run via a bases-loaded walk.

Stevens got it back in the next frame when Sarah Parker (Fredricksburg, Va.) singled up the middle and Christine Minervini (Toms River, N.J.) drove her in with a two-out double to leftcenter that rolled all the way to the wall. It was her first college RBI and gave Stevens a 4-1 advantage.

The Ducks scored another run in the fifth, as Senkevich rocketed a double down the leftfield line that scored Jamie DeGennaro (Pearl River, N.Y.), who walked to start the inning.

In the last half of the inning, OWU showed some life and scored three runs to tie the game. Noreen Jordan (Orangeburg, N.Y.) prevented the Bishops from getting their first lead, gunning down the go-ahead run at the plate from rightfield for the second out of the inning. Strom did well to hang onto the ball in the ensuing collision.

Both teams were scoreless in the sixth but in the seventh, OWU pushed across an unearned run to win the game in walkoff fashion in the bottom of the seventh. Berardi took the tough loss for the Ducks.

Game Two

Brianna Sandone (Haddon Twp., N.J.) started game two for Stevens against the Golden Tornadoes of Geneva College. Geneva earned a run with thee hits the top of the first inning and held the Ducks scoreless in the home half.

Sandone settled in and pitched a 1-2-3 second inning. Her freshman classmate Noelle Mulligan (Staten Island, N.Y.) had a hit in the second for Stevens but the squad could not get a two-out rally going.

In the third, Geneva scored one more run on a two-out error, but made the third out at third base as the second baseman Minervini cut down the runner from rightfield. Berardi fed off the subsequent momentum change and hit a triple all the way to the wall in right to lead off the bottom of the inning. DeFeo singled up the middle – her fourth hit of the day - to drive Berardi home and cut the Tornadoes' lead in half.

Sandone set down the next six Geneva batters in a row, but Geneva starter Julie DiLonardo (New Kensington, Pa.) was nearly as good, leaving the bases loaded in the fifth after three-straight hits from DeFeo, Parker and Strom.

Mulligan got a one-out single in the Stevens sixth, but that was all for the Ducks in the inning and would prove to be the final baserunner of the game for Stevens as they lost the pitcher's duel 2-1.

The Ducks will be back in action tomorrow at 9 a.m. versus Mount Mary College and Curry College.

Remember to "like" us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/StevensAthletics. Follow us on twitter @stevensducks or at www.twitter.com/StevensDucks.