COLUMBUS, Ga. (3/8/13) – The Kean University softball team dropped a draining 3-2 extra-inning affair with No. 15 Pacific Lutheran University in the first game of its season but roared back with a 12-4 victory over Hiram College in the nightcap to earn an Opening Day split.
Kean got on the board in their first turn at bat against the Lutes in the opening game. Katie Schuh led off with a single to right and was brought home on an RBI single by Kelly Moorehead (pictured left) that put the Cougars up early. Neither team would score again over the next six full innings, thanks to the dominant pitching of Courtney Yard and PLU reliever Kaaren Hatlen.
Down to their last licks, the Lutes tied it up in the seventh with an unearned run.
Using the runner placed on second to start the extra frame, the Cougars played small ball to score without the ball leaving the infield and went to the bottom half with a chance to win.
Unfortunately for the Jerseyans, PLU got two in the eighth to end Kean's hope of a signature win. Yard was saddled with the epitome of a tough-luck loss; the sophomore did not allow an earned run in eight innings against the No. 15 team in the nation.
Kean rebounded against the Terriers, however. After spotting Hiram three in the first, the Cougars scored three of their own in the bottom half. Moorehead knocked a two-RBI triple and Jill Martin drove in Moorehead from third.
With Kean reliever Ashlee Gieger settled into her groove the Cougars kept on hitting, scoring six runs in the second to blow the game open. Kean tacked on one on the fourth and Courtney Melchionna sent everyone home with an RBI single in the fifth that pushed the lead to mercy-rule levels.
Geiger earned the win with four and two-thirds innings of relief, while Martin and Moorehead combined for eight RBI for the Cougars offensively.
Kean will be back in action against Emory University on Saturday at 12:30 p.m.
