PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Sophomore Kyleigh Sand knocked in her third walk-off of the season lifting the Rutgers softball team to victory in an in-state battle on a cold and windy Tuesday afternoon at the Rutgers Softball Complex. Sand's RBI single with two outs in the bottom of the fifth gave the Scarlet Knights an 11-3 win over Monmouth.

Rutgers improved to 23-12 on the year and won its fifth-straight nonconference contest.
 

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

• Kyleigh Sand finished the contest 2-for-3 with two runs and three RBIs. Sand extended her current hit streak to nine.
• Taylor Fawcett also added in three RBIs in her third home run of the year.
• Payton Lincavage and Gabrielle Callaway each scored twice in the victory.
• Gillian Walsh made her first appearance behind the plate at catcher during the game and scored the game-winning run off Sand's walk-off.
• Altogether the Scarlet Knight pitching staff struck out 11 Monmouth batters. Jaden Vickers got the start tossing 3.0 innings for the win to improve to 14-3 on the year. She fanned five Hawks. Ashley Hitchcock, meanwhile, hurled the final two innings allowing just one hit and striking out six.

THE RUNDOWN

• Rutgers scored 10 runs off seven hits in the first inning and never looked back. Gabrielle Callaway and Katie Wingert had back-to-back RBI singles to begin the scoring barrage and Taylor Fawcett scored both on a three-run home run to left for a 5-0 lead. Scoring continued as leadoff Kyleigh Sand returned to the plate for a two-RBI double and Callaway smacked the ball deep into center where the ball popped out of the glove of the Monmouth centerfielder allowing another two runs to score to up the RU lead to 9-0. Wingert struck out but headed to first on a dropped strike three in what looked to be the third out of the inning, but the Hawks failed to step on first base for the out and Callaway trotted from first to home giving the Scarlet Knights its 10th run of the inning.
• Monmouth used a two-out, three-run home run from Lindsey Baron to left-center for its only scoring of the day.
• Gillian Walsh, who walked to start off the bottom of the fifth, was on second base with two outs when Sand delivered her walk-off to center.

KNIGHT NOTES

• Kyleigh Sand's walk-off was Rutgers' eighth of the season. Sand also had walk-off singles in wins over Fairfield and Drexel two weeks ago. Gabrielle Callaway also has three walk-offs for the Scarlet Knights (Colgate, Siena and Holy Cross) while Maddie Lawson (Wagner) and Taylor Fawcett (JMU) each have one.

UP NEXT

Rutgers softball returns to Big Ten action on the road this weekend. The Scarlet Knights begin a three-game series at Nebraska beginning Friday, April 1.

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