UNION, N.J. (4/21/15) – Senior hurler Courtney Yard pitched all 14 innings of the No. 24 Kean University softball team's NJAC tense doubleheader split with Stockton University on Tuesday. The Cougars dropped the first game 1-0 before prevailing 4-3 in the nightcap. Yard allowed just three total earned runs, struck out 15 and added three hits offensively on the day.
In the first game, the pitchers were in charge during the opening frames. Yard had five strikeouts through the first three innings, but had allowed two hits while Brittany Ksiezopolski was perfect into the third inning.
Amanda Berezny picked up the Cougars' first hit of the afternoon in the third, but that's all Kean could manage in the inning.
In the top of the fifth, the Ospreys scratched across a run with the help of a Kean error. With two outs and a runner on second, Danielle Lugo laced an RBI single down the rightfield line to plate a run.
It turned out to be the only score of the game. Neither team allowed an earned run. Kean had two good threats in the game: In the fifth, Yard led off with a double to the wall in centerfield but was stranded at third when the inning ended. Then in the final turn at-bat, Alexis D'Aloisio started with a single over the first baseman and Yard scalded the ball through the left side for another basehit. But Ksiezopolski stranded the game-tying run on third and the game-winning run on second to end the game.
The Stockton starter scattered four hits and struck out two to earn the shutout victory. Yard allowed just three hits, struck out seven and did not walk a batter in the tough-luck loss.
In the second game, both teams struck early. Stockton used a triple by Marissa Ortiz that just missed being caught down the rightfield line and then a two-out single that ricocheted off Yard to score a run.
But this time the Cougar offense was alive as well. Cayleen Rizo led off game two with a walk, and Emily Bissonnette and D'Aloisio (pictured left) both singled to load the bases. Yard came through with another hit – a ringing double over the centerfielder's head – to score two and put Kean ahead (and on the board) for the first time all day.
The Ospreys struck back in the fourth: four-straight hits to start the inning scored two runs, took back the lead and put Yard on the ropes. But the senior hurler struck out two and got a grounder to second to limit the damage to two and keep the score close.
Those tough pitches proved to be quite beneficial. Berezny started the next inning by serving a single to right. Two Osprey errors helped to set the table for pinch hitter MacKenzie Valeriani, whose RBI single down the rightfield line drove in two and flipped the lead back to Kean, 4-3.
Yard slammed the door by retiring nine of the final 10 batters she faced. She struck out eight batters in the second game and once again did not issue a single walk. Her three hits also led the team on Tuesday.
The Cougars will celebrate Senior Day with their final regular season games of the year beginning Saturday at 1 p.m. against Montclair State University. Senior Day ceremonies will take place between the two games of the doubleheader.
