UNION, N.J. (2/24/17) – With an incredible weather backdrop, the Kean University softball program enjoyed its earliest home opener in program history on Friday with two run-rule-shortened wins over DeSales University. Both final scores were 8-0 in six innings.
After missing the 2016 season with a knee injury, sophomore shortstop Cayleen Rizo delivered both game-ending hits in her first action since the 2015 College World Series.
Click here to see highlights from today's wins!
Game One
Rizo started the day with an RBI single to stake Kean to a 1-0 lead in the frame. RBIs by Dana Knapp and Caroline Ratti highlighted the Kean third inning, bumping up the lead to three.
In the circle, Shannon McMahon (pictured left) was perfect through the first three innings, though she ran into some trouble in the fourth with the bases loaded and just one out. But the senior earned a strikeout and ended the inning with a weak groundout back to the box to keep the shutout intact.
Emily Sabo – who scored three times in the game - and Knapp teamed up for another run in the fifth inning. Sabo reached base for the third-straight time, stole her third base and came in to score on a sacrifice fly by Knapp to make the score 4-0.
In the sixth inning, Samantha Krakower, Taryn DiGiacomo and Olivia Zengel started the frame with three-straight singles to load the bases. Sabo drove in Krakower with a sac fly to make the score 5-0.
With one down, Rizo drove a 1-0 pitch low and hard toward the left-centerfield gap. It cleared the fence for a game-winning three-run homer, as it put the Cougars ahead by eight runs after the fifth inning. Rizo ended the game with four RBIs.
McMahon earned the shutout win with six strikeouts in six innings and only allowed five baserunners.
Game Two
After two-and-a-half scoreless innings, Krakower led off the Kean third with a single. Zengel and Sabo walked to load the bases, and Rizo drove in the game's first run with a sac fly to center.
Knapp continued the rally with an RBI, and Jacqueline Riley knocked a long RBI single off the centerfield wall to make the score 3-0. Fellow freshman Julia Stasil then earned her second hit and first collegiate RBI with a single to centerfield. Katie Garbarino finished the scoring with a sac fly to right that made the count 5-0.
Meanwhile, Kean starter Taryn DiGiacomo was dealing. In her six-inning complete game she struck out seven – including five in a row from the first to the third. She scattered three hits and did not allow a runner past first base in her collegiate pitching debut.
In the fourth, Rizo doubled and Knapp followed up with a long blast over the centerfield wall that put Kean up 7-0.
Ratti and Sabo both made sparkling defensive plays for Kean in the fifth.
Following a similar script to game one, Krakower got on with a single and Rizo came through with the game-winning RBI hit – this time a single through the left side – as Kean won again by an 8-0 margin.
The Cougars are set to return to action in Kissimmee, Florida as part of the Rebel Spring Games. Kean's first opponents will be Coe College and Simpson College on March 4.
