WINTER HAVEN, Fla. (3/14/15) – The No. 12 Kean University Softball team won its 2015 opener in Florida before falling to undefeated McDaniel College in the second game of its season-opening doubleheader on Saturday at the Winter Haven Diamondplex.
Coincidently, this is the second-straight year the Cougars opened their season against the Cardinals of The Catholic University of America. Kean got wins in both games, including a 6-1 victory on Saturday.
Cougar starter Courtney Yard had five strikeouts in the first three innings against the Cardinals, including four in a row at one point.
In the fourth, Kean put a rally together after Kayla Parker led the frame off with an infield single. Emily Bissonnette walked and Kacie Worswick was hit by a pitch to load the bases with one out.
Sophomore Kate Smith was able to lift a liner over the shortstop to drive in Kean's first run of the season, and Brooke Ennis knocked in the second as the Cougars took a 2-0 lead.
With the help of a two-base error, the Cardinals were able to cut the Kean lead in half in the bottom of the inning when Erin Adams' sacrifice fly brought in Catholic's first run.
Bissonnette walked again to lead off the sixth inning, and a Catholic error put two runners on with nobody out for Kean. Ennis came up with a big two-RBI single in the right-centerfield gap to improve the Cougar lead to 4-1.
In the final frame, Kean rapped out three-straight singles by Yard, Parker and MacKenzie Valeriani to score two more runs. Valeriani drove in one and Worswick had the other on an RBI groundout.
Emily Sabo was 1-2 with two walks and stole two bases in the contest for Kean. Parker was the only player with more than one hit in the game. Ennis (pictured left) had three RBIs in the first collegiate action of her career.
The final line on Yard was impressive: a complete game with only the unearned run allowed, no walks and 10 strikeouts while giving up just two hits.
Against McDaniel in the second game, the Cougars coughed up four first-inning runs to spot the Green Terror an early lead. Sabo singled and scored after Yard drove her home in the bottom half of the first inning, but McDaniel countered with a run of its own in the top of the second.
With the Cougars trailing 7-1 in the third, Sabo led off with a single, Parker walked and a error loaded the bases with one out. Kean did manage to get one runner home when Bissonnette was hit by a pitch, but the Cougars could not capitalize on the chance to get back in the game.
Ennis, Cayleen Rizo and Sabo began the fourth inning with back-to-back-to-back singles, but again Green Terror hurler Valerie Lamb was impressive, wiggling out of trouble to keep McDaniel in the lead. Kean did score one on an RBI groundout by Yard to make the score 7-3.
The Green Terror continued to add to its cushion, and eclipsed the eight-run barrier in the sixth. When the Cougars could not score in the home half, the contest ended.
Lindsay Miller was 3-4 in the game for McDaniel with three RBIs. Lamb earned her first win of the season by scattering six hits and allowing just one earned run. The Terror are 4-0 this season.
Kean will be back in action tomorrow with games against Springfield College and SUNY Cortland beginning at 10 a.m.
