FORT COLLINS, Colorado – The 2022 Rutgers softball season came to a close on Monday as the Scarlet Knights fell 5-1 to UNLV in the elimination bracket of the super regional of the National Invitational Softball Championship (NISC).

Rutgers finishes the 2022 season at 25-30 overall. 

Among the Scarlet Knight season notables included the best start to a season since 1981, the first two First Team All-Big Ten selections and two First Team NFCA All-Region honorees for the first time since 2014. The 2022 season marked a 17-game win improvement, including an eight-game win streak from Feb. 18-26 that was the longest for the Scarlet Knights since 1994.
 

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

• Kyleigh Sand, Gabrielle Callaway and Maddie Lawson all had hits with Sand driving in Lawson for RU's lone run.
• Ashley Hitchcock started inside the circle throwing 2.1 innings and dropped to 11-19. Georgia Ingle pitched 1.2 innings and Jaden Vickers threw the final two innings. The trio combined for six strikeouts marking 305 strikeouts by the staff, the most by a pitching corps in a season in school history.

THE RUNDOWN

• UNLV put up a pair of runs in the first and second innings. Mia Trejo had a two-run home run in the Rebels' first appearance at the plate, while Samantha Diaz has a solo shot to open the second along with an RBI triple from April Visser to give UNLV a 4-0 advantage.
• Rutgers got onto the scoreboard in the fifth. Maddie Lawson led off with a single to short and advanced when Taylor Fawcett was hit by a pitch and Kobie Hura laid down a sac bunt. Kyleigh Sand grounded out to short, but it was enough to let the two-time Big Ten Rookie of the Week score.
• The Rebels added its final run in the fifth capitalizing on a wild pitch 

KNIGHT NOTES

• Among single-season leaders, Kyleigh Sand finished the season second in hits (68), third in runs (49), fourth in walks (33), tied for fifth in stolen bases (23) and sixth in batting average (.398). Gabrielle Callaway ended the year tied for eighth on the single season leaders list in home runs (10) and  Jaden Vickers' 181 strikeouts landed her fourth. As a team, RU finished the 2022 campaign with the most strikeouts in history (305), fifth in doubles (73), eighth in runs (238) and ninth in RBIs (212).
• Ashley Hitchcock upped her total to 269 strikeouts while Jaden Vickers improved to 267 career K's to enter next season sixth and seventh respectively on the Rutgers career leaders list. Additionally, Katie Wingert will be tied for fifth in home runs (23) and Payton Lincavage will be tied for eighth in triples (5) on the career leaders list come the start of 2023.   

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