WINTER HAVEN, Fla. (3/12/14) – The No. 23 Kean University softball team blew out Albion College 10-1 in 5 innings before being edged by Wheaton (Mass.) College 2-1 in the final game of the Rebel Spring Games on Thursday. For the third-straight day Cougar pitching allowed only one earned run in the team's two games.
Game One vs. Albion
Kean put together a 2-out rally in the first inning to score two; Sandra Binkiewicz, Kelly Moorehead and Amanda Berezny all had two-out basehits sandwiched around a Courtney Yard walk to bring home the first two runs of the game.
The Cougars struck again with two outs in the second. An error and a walk to Emily Sabo put two on with two out, and Binkiewicz knocked her second hit of the game to drive both runners in and double the Kean lead to 4-0.
Kean put up six runs in the third to put the game away. Kean had six hits in the inning, including a bases-loaded double by Sabo (pictured left) that drove in all three runners.
Pitchers Rebecca Rotola and Stephanie Gilbert combined to allow just one run in their five innings of work. Rotola pitched three scoreless frames with three strikeouts and earned the victory to move to 4-1 on the year.
Game Two vs. Wheaton
The day's second game matched up teams that came into the contest with a combined 13-2 record. After a scoreless first, the Cougars got on board with another two-out rally. Berezny started this one with a double over the rightfielder's head that skipped up against the wall. Alexis D'Aloisio then stroked the clutch 2-out RBI single to bring her around and stake Kean to a 1-0 lead.
Yard – the Cougars' starting pitcher against Wheaton – struck out five of the first six batters she faced and was perfect through the first two innings.
The game flew by; the first five innings were over in less than an hour. Pitcher Allison Baker was good for the Lyons as she allowed just the one run and four hits in that time, but Yard was even better in that time. The junior hurler held Wheaton to no runs and just two baserunners in the first five innings.
Sabo and Binkiewicz began the top of the sixths with a pair of infield hits, but Baker stranded them there to keep the score 1-0.
The Lyons took advantage of two Kean errors in the bottom of the sixth to score two quick runs, and Baker closed out Kean in the seventh as Wheaton stole the game from the Cougars in a flash.
Yard took the tough-luck loss without surrendering an earned run. She struck out eight Lyons in the contest. She and Barker combined for just one walk in the game.
Kean will fly home to New Jersey and resume the regular season with a home doubleheader against Centenary College on March 19.
