Rutgers Softball Falls to Pittsburgh in BIG EAST Doubleheader

Saturday, April 1

Piscataway, N.J.

Rutgers

6-22, 0

Pittsburgh

20-12, 0

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Pittsburgh	4	1	0	0	3	0	3	0	11	11	0
Rutgers University	0	3	0	2	0	0	0	X	5	8	5

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Pittsburgh	0	0	0	0	2	2	1	5	7	1
Rutgers University	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	4	2

Rutgers Softball Falls to Pittsburgh in BIG EAST Doubleheader

Apr 01 | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

PISCATAWAY, NJ - The Rutgers softball team (6-23, 1-5 BIG EAST) was swept by conference opponent Pittsburgh (21-12, 5-1 BIG EAST) on a chilly, rain-soaked Saturday afternoon at the RU Softball Complex. The Panthers topped the Scarlet Knights by a score of 11-5 in game one and earned a 5-1 victory in game two.

Pittsburgh took an early 5-0 lead over Rutgers, scoring four runs in the first and another in the second. The Scarlet Knights would respond in the bottom of the second with three runs of their own to cut Pitt’s advantage to two (5-3).

Sophomore Shantai Dixon (Sayreville, NJ) reached first base on a strikeout wild pitch, followed by freshman Amanda Heller (Belle Mead, NJ), who earned a walk in her at-bat. Freshman Brittany Loisel (Gilbert, AZ) plated Dixon from second on an RBI single to right-center, while classmate Amanda Shaw (Yorba Linda, CA) drove in two more runs (Heller and Loisel) with single to center field.

Pitt recorded an out to start the bottom half of the fourth before the game was delayed one hour and 10 minutes due to heavy rain. Following the rain-delay, Rutgers put together a string of hits to eventually tie the game at five. Heller and Loisel posted back-to-back singles and were eventually driven home on junior Kristin Madoch’s (Glenview, IL) double up the middle, knotting the game at 5-5.

The Panthers pulled away in the fifth on three consecutive solo home runs, extending their lead to 8-5 and added three more scores in the seventh to secure their 11-5 victory.

Junior Nicole Freeman (Sandy, UT) took the loss (1-7) going 4.2 innings, while freshman Christina Yard (Hillsborough, NJ) pitched 2.1 innings in relief.

Pittsburgh was held without a hit through the first four innings of game two due in large part to a solid pitching performance by junior Jessica Crosby (Sedro-Woolley, WA), but Crosby’s outing would be marred in the fifth as the Panthers plated a pair of runners to take a 2-0 lead.

Yard helped clip Pitt’s lead in half (2-1) with her first collegiate home run, a solo shot over the left-field fence to start the fifth inning. The Panthers eventually added three more runs, two in the sixth and one in the seventh, to pick up the 5-1 win.

Crosby pitched a total of five innings, allowing two runs on just three hits, while senior Christina Gillman (Valencia, CA) and Yard closed out the final two innings of the game.

Rutgers will host Syracuse in a doubleheader at the RU Softball Complex on Sunday, April 2 at 12:00 pm.