Game 1 Box Score    Game 2 Box Score

CHESTER, Pa. – Senior centerfielder Melissa Ulrich 4-for-7 with two home runs and sophomore pitcher Jenn Roberts threw a four-hit shutout to improve to 10-0 as the red-hot Lebanon Valley College softball team swept Widener in a Commonwealth Conference doubleheader Tuesday afternoon at Pioneer Field, winning 7-0 and 2-1.

Lebanon Valley, which has won its last six games and eight of its last nine, is now 18-4 and 6-0 in the Commonwealth Conference. The team is one win from tying the single-season program record for wins, set in 2001 when LVC finished 19-16.

Widener fell to 5-20 and 1-7 in the conference.

Ulrich went 3-for-4 in the opener and smacked a two-run homer in the seventh to set the final score. Then in the nightcap, she provided all the offense LVC would need with one swing of the bat. With the Valley trailing 1-0 in the sixth, Ulrich drilled a two-run homer to center, her third long ball of the season.

Roberts and sophomore Kelly O'Toole paced Lebanon Valley in the circle once again, as the two combined to limit Widener to nine hits and one run. Roberts spun her fourth shutout of the season to go with a career-high 13 strikeouts in Game One while O'Toole scattered five hits, struck out five and walked none in the nightcap.

In the fourth inning of the first game, Lebanon Valley pounded out four hits and took advantage of three errors en route to five runs. Roberts, freshman designated player Lauren Sanford, and sophomore shortstop Audrey Benner each had RBI-singles in the inning to ignite LVC.

Benner and Sanford both had two hits in the opener while sophomore third baseman Jenn Parks and Ulrich scored two runs apiece.

Roberts ran into her only real danger in the fifth, when the Pioneers loaded the bases with one out after three singles. But that's when she retired the final eight batters of the game after getting a flyout and strikeout to end the fifth. Roberts' last four outs were strikeouts. She had at least one K in every inning and fanned the side twice.

Roberts is now just two wins shy of the single-season school record of 12 set by Amy Zellers '00 in 2000.

Freshman Amanda Riegel (0-5) suffered the loss for Widener. She gave up 10 hits and one walk while striking out five.

In the nightcap, Widener scored its only run of the day when the pitcher, freshman Mallory Meyer, doubled to lead off the game before advancing to third on a single and scoring on a passed ball. But O'Toole would settle in to blank the Pioneers the rest of the way on just three hits.

Meyer also pitched well in the early going, shutting out LVC through five. But in the sixth, sophomore leftfielder Amy Batz reached on an error with one out. Lebanon Valley made Widener pay for its mistake, as Ulrich connected for her game-winning homer with two outs.

The Pioneers threatened in both the sixth and the seventh. Widener had the tying run on second with one out in the sixth, then had the tying run on third with one out in the seventh. But O'Toole was able to get a pair of outs both innings to get the win and improve to 6-1 on the season.

Meyer (4-7) scattered six hits for Widener and did not allow an earned run.

Junior catcher Mandi Nace finished 2-for-3 at the plate in Game Two.

Lebanon Valley will take a break from its Commonwealth Conference schedule when it hosts Rowan in a non-conference doubleheader on Thursday at 3 p.m.

[Photo - Senior Melissa Ulrich, who hit two home runs in Lebanon Valley's sweep of Widener on Tuesday]

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