EAST LANSING, Mich. -- The Rutgers softball team not only returned to action Friday afternoon, but also returned to the win column.

Starting off on-campus competition with a four-game series at Michigan State, the Scarlet Knights scored three runs in their first at-bat and sophomore Ashley Hitchcock threw five strikeouts in her second complete game of the season in a 3-2 victory over the Spartans.

The victory snapped a six-game losing streak for Rutgers.

Rutgers 3, Michigan State 2

STANDOUT STATS

• The right-hander Ashley Hitchcock tossed all seven innings allowing two runs on five hits and striking out five Spartan batters.
• Sophomore cleanup hitter Kiersten Withstandley, who put Rutgers onto the scoreboard with her first career triple, ended the afternoon 2-for-3 with two RBIs and a run scored.
• Fifth-year senior Anyssa Iliopoulos followed with an RBI double going 1-for-2.

 

THE RUNDOWN

• The Scarlet Knights wasted no time in taking the lead. Withstandley, hitting cleanup, gave RU a 2-0 lead with a triple to center and scored on the next at-bat as an Anyssa Ilipoulos fly to left stayed out of foul territory for the hit.
• The Spartans loaded the bases in the bottom of the second, but were kept to only one run in the inning. Kendall Kates grounded out to short to score Janae Wash, but a flyout to left and the first of Hitchcock's five strikeouts got the Scarlet Knights out of the inning.
• Michigan State pulled within one in the bottom of the fourth on a solo home run to left from Alex Barroso.
• Rutgers kept the Spartans off the bases the rest of the way as Michigan State went down in order in the fifth, sixth and seventh.

 

KNIGHT NOTES

• Payton Lincavage's nine-game hitting streak came to an end, but she has continued to reach base in the last 11 games. The sophomore also registered her team-leading eighth run of the year.
• Withstandley captured Rutgers' fourth triple of the season. In addition to her first Scarlet Knight triple, it was also her first multi-RBI game of her career.
• Hitchcock threw her second-straight complete game for her first win of 2021. She has totaled 11 strikeouts in her last two appearances.
• Katie Wingert made her first appearance as a pinch hitter in the top of the sixth.

 

HIGHLIGHTS

 

UP NEXT

The Michigan State series continues with a doubleheader on Saturday. First pitch for game one at 1 p.m. with game two slated to start at approximately 3 p.m.

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