STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. (4/15/15) – Senior Courtney Yard of the No. 24 Kean University softball team threw a shutout and hit a two-run homer in the Cougars' 4-0 game one win over the College of Staten Island and returned to the circle to earn the win in a 12-8 game two slugfest that featured five lead changes.
In the first game of the day, Yard twirled her fifth shutout of the season and earned the complete-game victory. She also provided the first two runs of the afternoon with her first homerun of the season in the fourth inning of what was a 0-0 game.
Yard was perfect through four and did not allow a runner past second base in a dominant performance. She only allowed one Dolphin hit in the first game and struck out 11 without walking any batters.
Her teammates provided some insurance in the seventh. Emily Bissonnette walked to lead off and Alexis D'Aloisio and MacKenzie Valeriani both had RBI singles in the inning to double the Kean lead to 4-0. Yard slammed the door with another 1-2-3 inning to take game one.
In game two, the Cougars leapt out to an early 2-0 lead when Emily Sabo walked, stole second and was driven in on Bissonnette's double to centerfield. Valeriani knocked a clutch two-out RBI single to rightfield later in the inning to chase home Bissonnette and make the score 2-0.
Staten Island scored its first run of the day following a Cougar error in the second, but Kean got it right back in the third on a two-out, bases loaded RBI single by Katie Garbarino (pictured left). The freshman catcher would finish the game 4-for-5, four RBIs and a run scored.
The Dolphins tied it up right away in the third with the help of two more Kean errors, and then took a one-run lead in the fourth when Chyanne Gilliam drove in Brittany Smith.
Kean exploded for four runs in the fifth; Garbarino and Tonianne DeMatteo both had RBI doubles in the frame, and Bissonnette had a big two-out, 2-RBI single to make the score 7-4 Cougars.
Incredibly, Staten Island scored four runs of their own in the home half of the inning to retake the lead. Each fifth inning run was unearned; Kean had to overcome five errors to win the second game.
Luckily, the Cougar comeback started immediately. Three more runs on singles by Valeriani, Kayla Parker, Garbarino and DeMatteo put Kean back on top 10-8 in the sixth.
Yard and Garbarino drove in two more insurance runs in the seventh and the Dolphin offense finally wheezed out as Kean swept the doubleheader. The second game - with 20 runs, six errors and 27 combined hits - took three hours to play.
Kean will resume NJAC play on Saturday when the Cougars travel to the College of New Jersey beginning at 1 p.m.
