Game 1 Box Score Game 2 Box Score
ANNVILLE, Pa. – Sophomore Jenn Roberts threw a four-hit complete game and the Lebanon Valley College softball team won its school-record 20th game of the season with a 5-1 victory over Messiah in the opener of a Commonwealth Conference doubleheader Saturday afternoon at the LVC Softball Park.
Messiah won the nightcap 3-1 to hand Lebanon Valley (20-6, 7-1 CC) its first conference loss of the season.
Lebanon Valley's previous record for single-season wins came in 2001, when it finished 19-16.
Roberts (11-0), who has now won her last 12 starts dating back to last season, walked only one and struck out nine. She is now just one win from tying the single-season school wins record set in 2000, when Amy Zellers '00 was 12-6.
Freshman Lana Trotter threw a five-hit complete game for Messiah (13-17, 6-4 CC) in the second game.
In the opener, Lebanon Valley went up 3-0 in the first against Messiah starter Vikki Downes to provide Roberts with more than enough run support. Sophomore third baseman Jenn Parks singled home a pair of runs before freshman catcher Jessica Salisbury came through with an RBI-single to make 3-0.
After Messiah scratched out an unearned run in the second, senior centerfielder Melissa Ulrich lined a two-run homer over the left-center fence to set the final score. Ulrich now has four home runs on the season, the most by a Lebanon Valley player since Zellers hit five in 2000.
Salisbury went 3-for-3 at the plate while Parks was 2-for-3.
Downes went the distance while giving up nine hits and three walks while striking out four.
In the second game, the Falcons scored twice in the first on four hits and an error to go up 2-0 against LVC starter Kelly O'Toole. Messiah added an insurance run in the fifth on two singles, a sacrifice, and a wild pitch.
Lebanon Valley rallied in the bottom of the seventh, with Parks and junior catcher Mandi Nace ripping one single apiece. O'Toole then drove in Parks with a single of her own, but Trotter got out of the jam by getting back-to-back flyouts to end the game.
Trotter (5-5) walked one and struck out one while O'Toole (6-3), who also threw a complete game, did not record a walk or a punchout.
O'Toole was 2-for-3 at the plate in the nightcap. Ulrich went 0-for-3 and saw her hitting streak end at 11.
Lebanon Valley returns to Commonwealth Conference action on Tuesday, when it hosts Moravian in a doubleheader starting at 3 p.m.
[Photo - Sophomore Jenn Roberts, who threw a complete-game four-hitter in Lebanon Valley's 5-1 win over Messiah on Saturday]
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