HARRISONBURG, Va. (March 17, 2019) – Rutgers softball (15-11) had five Scarlet Knights with multiple hits and slugged five extra base hits to power past St. Joseph's (9-10) on Sunday in the finale of the JMU Invitational at Veterans Memorial Park.
 
QUICK PITCH

• Freshman catcher Katie Wingert and senior shortstop Jess Hughes provided most of the offense with just two swings of the bat, as Wingert launched her first collegiate grand slam in the second inning, and Hughes, after being frustrated by lining out hard three at-bats in a row, got some redemption with a long, three-run homer to deep center in the sixth inning.
• Head coach Kristen Butler: "In our wins this weekend, our bottom of the lineup did a great job getting on base for the top of our order. That set us up for success. That's going to be important going into conference play. Katie had an all-around great weekend, we're so happy to see that production from anyone, let alone a freshman, both behind the plate and with the stick. We had a game plan all weekend long, and stuck with it for the most part with really good at-bats against some good pitchers and not wasting at-bats."

STANDOUT STATS

• Those long balls were plenty for an effective relief performance by freshman pitcher Corah Price, who improved to 7-3 on the year with a scoreless 3.2 innings with just three hits allowed and getting two strikeouts.
• Wingert was joined by Anyssa Iliopoulos, Christine Malito, Nicolette Anico and Adriana Burcar as Scarlet Knights with multiple hits on Sunday.
• Iliopoulos added the other RBI and both hits went for doubles, her ninth and 10^th of the season.

THE RUNDOWN

• St. Joe's took an early 1-0 lead with an unearned run charged to Rutgers' starting pitcher Whitney Jones following an error in field.
• Wingert's grand slam was a no-doubt-about-it rocket to left field that came with two outs on the board in the top of the second inning, scoring Malito, Anico and Burcar, all of whom singled ahead of her. When it landed, it was 4-1 Scarlet Knights.
• The Hawks chipped away in the middle innings with two runs in the third, then tied the game in the fourth. Price came on and stranded the possible go-ahead run on second base by retiring two Hawks to end the fourth.
• Wingert and Iliopoulos had back-to-back doubles in the fifth, with the latter giving RU a 5-4 lead it would not relinquish.
• Hughes lined out hard twice to the second baseman, then hit an opposite field liner right to the left fielder her third time up. No one had a chance to catch the ball in the top of the sixth, as Hughes lifted her fifth homer of the season to dead center field for the 8-4 lead.
• Price worked a 1-2-3 bottom of the seventh, getting consecutive strikeouts looking to end the contest.

KNIGHT NOTES

• Rutgers improves to 2-0 against St. Joe's this weekend after completing a four-run comeback and scoring a fifth run in the bottom of the seventh to beat the Hawks on Friday at the JMU Invitational. All-time, Rutgers moves to 26-8 against its old Atlantic 10 rival.
• Wingert hit her team-leading eighth home run of the season, and is now tied with Iliopoulos for the team lead in RBIs with 25 apiece.
• Rutgers improves to 7-1 this season when hitting two or more home runs in a game.
• Rutgers moves to 11-1 this season when scoring six or more runs in a game.
• The Scarlet Knights posted their eighth game of the season with double-digit hits.
• It was Rutgers' fifth game this year with at least five extra base hits.

UP NEXT
The Scarlet Knights open Big Ten Conference play on Friday, March 22 at Northwestern, which is receiving the most votes without being ranked in the Top 25 in both major national polls. The three-game Big Ten set is scheduled for Friday at 5 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m., all times Eastern.
 
 
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