Following a doubleheader sweep against Montclair State University on Saturday, Ramapo’s softball team traveled to Union to take on Kean University in its second straight New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) doubleheader. Once again, the Roadrunners left both games with a win, improving their overall record to 22-5-1, including a 6-1-1 conference record.
Ramapo won game one by a score of 4-3. Both teams traded runs in the first inning, with Ramapo’s coming courtesy of an Alexis Corra RBI single and Kean scoring on a Karly Messina single to right-center field.
That 1-1 score held until the fifth. Avery Bartolomeo came up with runners on first and third and she bashed her first home run of the year over the left field wall, giving Ramapo a 4-1 lead. In the bottom of the inning, Messina singled home her second RBI of the day to bring the score within two.
Ramapo starter Marissa DiPaolo began the seventh inning, but after a leadoff walk she was replaced with freshman Brooke
Knight. Despite allowing the runner to come around and score, Knight got the final three outs of the game and recorded her fourth save of the season.
DiPaolo was credited with the win, improving her record on the season to 7-0 and her career record at Ramapo to 19-3. She went six innings, allowed three runs on 10 hits, walked three and struck out none. Her ERA on the season now stands at 1.53.
Ramapo won game two by a score of 6-1. In contrast to the heavily-contested game one, this one seemed over from the first inning. The Roadrunners jumped out to an early 3-0 lead. The first run was driven in on a Bartolomeo RBI single that scored Corra. Then, after Avery Kontura reached base with a walk, Kori Gargiulo hit an RBI single to left field, which scored
Bartolomeo and then Kontura following an error by Kean.
Ramapo tacked on two more runs in the third. First, Kontura was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, which brought home Corra. After that, Gargiulo scored Mahogany Wheeler on a sacrifice fly. The Roadrunners added one more run in the fourth on a Corra sacrifice fly, pushing the score to 6-0. The Cougars scored their only run of the game in the bottom of the sixth inning on an Autaum Hilyer RBI single.
Kassy Stefanski pitched for Ramapo in game two and earned the win, pushing her record on the year to 8-2. She went six innings and faced two batters in the seventh, allowed one run on seven hits, struck out four and walked two. Knight came on in relief of her and went one inning and struck out one batter.
The Roadrunners will look to extend their six-game win streak in a doubleheader against St. Joseph’s University Brooklyn at home on Thursday beginning at 3 p.m. These will be Ramapo’s last non-NJAC games of the season. Then, the team will celebrate Senior Day on Saturday prior to a doubleheader against Rutgers-Camden beginning at 1 p.m.
bschmid@ramapo.edu
Featured photo courtesy of Nancy Rygiel, Ramapo Athletics
