UNION, N.J. (4/1/14) – Junior righty Courtney Yard threw the first perfect game in the Kean University record book as the softball team swept New Jersey City University in the initial NJAC action of 2014. Yard's perfect game came in a 9-0 mercy-rule victory in game one, and the Cougars went on to take game two 4-2.

Yard (pictured left) threw 58 pitches in her perfect game; 44 of them were strikes. She struck out seven Gothic Knights, with the other outs coming via five fly balls and three grounders. NJCU never got to a three-ball count in game one as Yard dominated from start to finish.

This is Yard's second career no-hitter; she blanked Richard Stockton College on April 23 of last year. It is the sixth-no hitter overall in school history; Amber Long no-hit NJCU for the Cougars on April 27, 1996.

Kean staked Yard to a nine-run cushion, ensuring that she would only need to throw five innings for her perfecto. The Cougars scored four in the second and four more in the third to quickly go up 8-0.

Alexis D'Aloisio singled on the game's first scoring play and Yard came around to score on a throwing error. Emily Bissonnette added a two-RBI single up the middle, then Emily Sabo singled and Amanda Berezny scored the fourth run of the frame.

In the third, Jill Martin doubled to score Berezny and D'Aloisio. Megan Cegielski brought Bissonnette in with a sac fly and Sabo drove in the final run of the inning with an RBI single up the middle.

D'Aloisio capped the Kean scoring in the fourth with an RBI single that scored Kelly Moorehead.

Tiffany Varriello squeezed the final out at first base as Yard completed the first perfect game in school history in just one hour and seven minutes.

Yard went on to start game two and remained perfect through the first three innings; at that point she was relieved and moved to first base to start the fourth. Sabo made a pair of nice defense plays at secondbase to help keep the Knights off the basepaths in game two.

Kean scored two runs in the first inning on a double by Sandra Binkiewicz (pictured right) and a sac fly by Yard to lead 2-0 after one. Cegielski walked and scored on another RBI base knock by Binkiewicz to move the lead to 3-0 in the second.

NJCU finally got a baserunner in the fourth and brought her around to score to make the deficit 3-1. Kean got that one right back with yet another RBI by Binkiewicz in the home half of the inning.

Marissa Bariso led off the sixth with a homerun for NJCU. After that, Yard returned to the circle and quickly retired the next four batters she faced. The only blemish on her entire day was a one-out groundball single in the seventh inning; she would have earned both the win and the save in game two if that were possible. She finished game two with six strikeouts in five innings of work.

Kean will travel to Rowan University on Thursday for a make-up date with the Profs beginning at 3 p.m.