ANNEVILLE, Pa. (4/10/14) – The No. 25 Kean University softball team knocked off No. 12 Lebanon Valley College 6-3 in game two of its doubleheader with the Dutchmen on Thursday. It was just the second loss of the year for LVC, which is now 19-2. Kean moved to 22-6 on the season after the spilt with included a 1-0 setback in game one.
In game one both teams managed just four hits. Courtney Yard (pictured left) was 2-for-3 and Kelly Moorehead and Amanda Berezny also had base knocks for Kean, but the Cougars did not get a runner past second base in the game.
A two-out rally won it for the Dutchmen. A bunt single and an error were all they needed to score this walk-off run in the bottom of the seventh to run their record to 19-1.
Yard was a tough-luck loser again for the Cougars in game one. She struck out eight and allowed only four hits. It was the third time this year she has taken a loss in a complete game where she did not allow an earned run.
In the second game, the Dutchmen scored on a first-and-third steal with two outs in the first to take a 1-0 lead. They kept it until Kean batted in the third.
Jill Martin started the rally with a single through the left side and came around to score Kean's first run on Sandra Binkiewicz's single and knot the game at one. Yard then doubled home the go-ahead run and both Moorehead and Emily Bissonnette followed with hits as the Cougars scored four runs in the frame and chased LVC's starter from the circle.
The Dutchmen got one back in the home half of the inning, making the score 4-2.
Martin got the rally going again for Kean in the fourth. She was hit by a pitch to start and then Megan Cegielski and Emily Sabo singled to load the bases. Binkiewicz singled home one run and Yard hit a sac fly to score another as the Cougars increased their cushion to four. Moorehead also had a hit in the inning but the frame ended with a runner thrown out at the plate.
LVC hung up another run in the fifth, but the Kean pitching tandem of Rebecca Rotola and Yard kept the Dutchmen at arm's length in the second game. Yard struck out five in five innings of relief to earn her 12th victory of the year. She pitched 11.2 innings on the day and allowed just one earned run.
The Cougars will return home on Saturday to host Rutgers-Camden at 1 p.m. on Cougar Field.
