PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Sophomore Kyleigh Sand capped her incredible weekend with a two-out walk-off in the ninth to help Rutgers softball slay the Drexel Dragons, 4-3, in the finale of the Rutgers Softball Tournament on Sunday afternoon.

Sand helped RU to a 5-1 record during the tournament behind a .619 batting average (13-for-21), eight RBIs and 10 runs scored. She was 6-for-6 on stolen base attempts.

The Scarlet Knights, playing in their final nonconference tournament weekend, head into Big Ten play at 21-10.
 

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

• Kyleigh Sand finished the day 3-for-5 with the game-winning RBI and a run.
• Redshirt junior Katie Wingert was 2-for-3 including a double with a run scored and batted in while graduate student Gabrielle Callaway was 1-for-4 with an RBI and the game-winning run.
• Sophomore Kayla Bock also added an RBI.
• Jaden Vickers pitched all nine innings producing seven strikeouts to up her mark to 13- 2 on the year.

THE RUNDOWN

• The Dragons breathed fire into the game in the top of the third as Mia Garza led off the inning on a home run.
• By the bottom of the inning, however, Rutgers tied the game. Gabrielle Callaway got the ball thru the left side with two outs sending Kyleigh Sand speeding home from second base.
  The following inning the Scarlet Knights took a 2-1 edge off a Katie Wingert sacrifice fly that scored Taylor Fawcett.
• Drexel knotted the score at 2-2 as an errant pickoff at third opened the door for Jackie Masone to reach home.
• The Dragons briefly reclaimed the lead in extra innings. Sarah Clinton's sacrifice fly to center put the visitors up 3-1 in the top of the eighth.
• Kayla Bock, however, refused to let the game end delivering a single to center to continue the contest. Bock's hit scored Callaway, who began the bottom of the inning on second base and made it to third on a Maddie Lawson sac bunt.
• Kobie Hura put down the sac bunt to advance Wingert to third in the bottom of the ninth setting up Sand's two-out walk-off into right for the win.

RUTGERS SOFTBALL TOURNAMENT KNIGHT NOTES

• After the weekend, Kyleigh Sand leads Rutgers with 39 hits and 31 runs.
• Gabrielle Callaway and Katie Wingert both batted .500 for the weekend. Callaway was 7-for-14, including a double and home run, with a team-leading 11 RBIs and three runs scored. Wingert was 6-for-12 with a pair of doubles and four runs.
• Ashley Hitchcock held down a 0.78 ERA with complete games in all three of her appearances. She threw 18 total innings with a pair of shutouts allowing only two earned runs. She upped her career strikeout total to 217 and moved into eighth all-time in the category at Rutgers.
• Having fanned 23 batters over the tournament's six games, Jaden Vickers surpassed the 200 K career mark. She is currently ninth all-time with her 201 career strikeouts. Vickers went 3-0 during the tournament with a 1.00 ERA. She allowed only three runs and held opponents to a .109 average at the plate.

UP NEXT

Rutgers opens Big Ten play next weekend against Minnesota at home. The Scarlet Knights will take on the Golden Gophers on Friday at 3 p.m., Saturday at 1 p.m. and Sunday at 11 a.m. Admission to all home games at the Rutgers Softball Complex is free.

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