UNION, N.J. (4/20/21) – Head Coach Margie Acker collected her 500^th career victory as the #20 Kean University softball team split a New Jersey Athletic Conference doubleheader with William Paterson University on Tuesday afternoon.

William Paterson 3, Kean 2
Taryn DiGiacomo finished 2-for-4, while Sarah Zengel went 1-for-2 with an RBI as the Cougars (16-5, 6-5 NJAC) came up short to the Pioneers (9-6, 8-3 NJAC) in the opener.

Kean actually took an early 1-0 lead in the second, when Zengel smacked an RBI single to score Jenn Majorczak. Paterson responded with a three run homer in the fourth to propel the Pioneers to a 3-1 advantage. The Cougars would get a run back in the bottom half of the inning, when Nicole Vassallo hit an RBI single that scored Julie Raba.

That would be the closest Kean would get as Paterson held the Cougars to just three hits in the final three innings.

DiGiacomo struck out a career-high 12 batters in the complete game loss.

Kean 4, William Paterson 3
Julie Raba went 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored, while Skylar Hengeveld finished 1-for-3 with two RBI's as the Cougars (17-5, 7-5 NJAC) used a four run inning to propel them past the Pioneers (9-7, 8-4 NJAC) in the night cap.

After WPU took a 1-0 lead in the top half of the third, Kean responded with four runs on six hits in the bottom half of the inning to put the Cougars in front at 4-1. The inning was highlighted by RBI singles from Raba, Hengeveld and Zengel.

The Pioneers made things interesting in the seventh by scoring two runs with two outs which cut Kean's lead to 4-3. Paterson would get the winning run to second, but the Cougars secured the final out to give Coach Acker #500 for her career.

Heather Clevenger improved to 6-1 in the circle with two strikeouts in the complete game victory.

Coach Acker and the Cougars will return to action on Saturday Apr. 24^th in Montclair, N.J. against the Red Hawks of Montclair State University for a doubleheader beginning at 1:00 p.m.