The New York University softball team dropped a pair of games at home to Rutgers University-Newark on Sunday, April 26, at the Bahoshy Softball Complex on the campus of Fordham University in the Bronx.
NYU dropped the opener 6-3 and the nitecap 11-7.
The Violets (8-22) also celebrated their two seniors --
Becky Laitman and
Caitlin Ryan -- during the pre-game ceremonies.
"They're going to be very successful in anything and everything they do, and it's good that they got the opportunity to play softball at the varsity level. Not many people get that opportunity," said NYU Head Coach Now-Allah James. "For them to move up from club to varsity and do the job they've done all year is a great thing."Sage Scheiwiller started game one for NYU, but was replaced by
Jacqueline Tremblay to start the third inning. The sophomore hurler finished off the game with 5.0 scoreless innings, scattering four hits with one strikeout.
The Scarlet Raiders (18-20) scored all of their runs in the first two innings of the first game.
NYU trailed 6-0 heading into the seventh but rallied for three runs.
Val Schwein led off with a single and moved over to second on a groundout.
Natalie Evans came in as a pinch hitter and promptly knocked in Schwein with an RBI triple to left-center. Then with two outs,
Colby Tarsitano registered an RBI single, followed by a run scoring double from
Rachel Fulton.
Rutgers-Newark led off the secomd game with three runs in the first inning, but the Violets came right back to take a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the frame.
Molly Webber notched an RBI single, followed by a bloop single to shallow center from Schwein that scored two. Evans finished the inning with another RBI triple.
Trailing 5-4 in the bottom of the third, NYU scored two more, followed by another in the home half of the fourth to take a 7-5 lead. The Scarlet Raiders scored one in the fifth, three in the sixth and two in the seventh, though, and finished with the 11-7 win.
"They came up with big hits in big moments during that second game," continued James. "Unfortunately, we didn't get enough of thoses hits to keep up with Rutgers-Newark the whole way. It's just being a young, first-year program, and as we go along we'll build up that depth. We're in every ballgame and our players are doing everything they can and that's all we can ask."NYU will return to action when the team travels to Jersey City, NJ, tomorrow afternoon, Monday, April 27, to face New Jersey City University. First pitch of game one of the doubleheader is scheduled for 3:00 pm.
