WINTER HAVEN, Fla. (3/17/15) - Senior Courtney Yard of the No. 12 Kean University softball team threw her first shutout of the season in the Cougars' 2-0 victory over Eastern Connecticut State University on Tuesday. Kean fell 7-1 to Skidmore in the day's opening game.
Game 1 vs. Skidmore
After spotting Skidmore a pair of runs, Tonianne DeMatteo led off the Kean third inning with a screaming double off the leftfield wall. Brooke Ennis and Emily Sabo also had infield singles in the inning, but Skidmore starter Cassie Fishkin snuck out of the bases-loaded jam without allowing any runs.
The Cougars finally scored on their ninth hit of the game in the fifth inning. Cayleen Rizo led off the frame with a single to center, and then Sabo dropped another bunt single – her second of the game - to put two runners on. But Kean was in danger of leaving them stranded again before Emily Bissonnette connected on a two-out RBI single through the left side that made the score 4-1.
The Mustangs added three more runs in the last two innings to take the matchup 7-1. Sam Skott had a pair of hits for Skidmore, scoring two runs while driving in one. Fishkin earned the win and Amanda Carilli pitched the final two scoreless innings. The Emily's – Sabo and Bissonnette – both had two hits for Kean.
Kean turned two double plays in the game. The first was unconventional, beginning with a flyout to Bissonnette in left. She threw to MacKenzie Valeriani at third, who fired to Sabo at second to get the runner trying to advance from the keystone sack. The second came on a bouncer to Sabo, who tagged the runner and fired to first for the 4-4-3 double play to end the fifth.
Game 2 vs. Eastern Connecticut State
After allowing a leadoff walk, Kean starter Courtney Yard (pictured left) struck out the side in the bottom half of the first. In the second, she got into a bit of trouble with runners on the corners and two outs. With both runners on the move, catcher Kacie Worswick was alert enough to nab the runner from third in no-man's land and end the inning.
In the top of the third, the Cougars strung together four hits to score the game's only two runs. First, Rizo and Sabo singled to set the table, and then Bissonnette and Kayla Parker drove them in with back-to-back singles as Kean took a 2-0 lead.
Yard once again got into some trouble in the home half of the third, but with the bases loaded and one out she notched her fifth strikeout and then got a popup to end the Warrior threat unscathed.
The story of the game was Yard wiggling out of trouble. In the fifth, she stranded another runner at third with an inning-ending punchout, her seventh of the afternoon. In the sixth, she did it again, with the third out coming with an East Conn runner 60 feet from the plate.
But Yard saved her greatest heroics for the final frame, when she walked the leadoff hitter, and then surrendered a double to put the tying run in scoring position with nobody out.
It was then the senior showed why she's one of the top pitchers in the nation. She struck out the Warriors' two, three and four batters in a row to end the rally and cement the shutout victory. She struck out 11 in her seven innings and stranded 'nine East Conn runners.
Rizo had two hits for Kean in the second game. Warrior starter Samantha Valentine pitched well in the game, too. She gave up just the two third-inning runs and scattered seven hits.
The Cougars will return to Florida action tomorrow with games against Messiah College and St. Norbert College beginning at 10 a.m. at the Winter Haven Diamondplex.
