Game 1 Box Score  Game 2 Box Score

ANNVILLE, Pa. – Lebanon Valley pounded out 29 hits over just 10 innings as the Flying Dutchmen swept Franklin & Marshall College 8-1 and 12-5 in a non-conference softball doubleheader and LVC’s home opener Thursday afternoon at the LVC Softball Park.

The second game was called after 4 ½ innings due to darkness.

Lebanon Valley, which has won its last five games, improved to 12-2. Franklin & Marshall dropped to 2-12.

Junior third baseman Jenn Parks and junior centerfielder Amy Batz ripped four hits apiece for LVC while freshman catcher/designated player Crystal Nolen went 3-for-5 with four runs scored. Junior pitcher/designated player Jenn Roberts smacked a three-run home run and finished with four RBIs.

Roberts also pitched the first game and worked a four-hit, eight-strikeout complete game to nudge her record to 2-1. Senior Alisa Albers threw all five innings of the nightcap to improve to 4-0.

Lebanon Valley never trailed in either game. In the opener, Nolen got her team on the scoreboard when, in her first collegiate home at-bat, she led off the second inning with a towering solo home run down the leftfield line to make it 1-0. Nolen’s blast marked LVC’s first home run of the season.

Lebanon Valley broke open the first game with a six-hit, four-run third, when it sent 10 batters to the plate. Parks, junior first baseman Kelly O’Toole, and sophomore leftfielder Amy Weist each had RBI-singles, with O’Toole’s hit driving in a pair of runs.

Franklin & Marshall cut the gap to 5-1 with a single, two wild pitches, and an RBI-double in the fourth.

LVC added three insurance runs on four hits in the seventh. Sophomore catcher Jessica Salisbury and Weist drilled back-to-back, bases loaded singles to drive in one run apiece before freshman second baseman Katie DeJulio walked with the bags full.

Parks led the Valley’s 15-hit attack in the first game, going 3-for-4 at the plate. DeJulio, Batz, Salisbury, and Weist all had two hits apiece.

In the second game, LVC went ahead 1-0 in the bottom of the first on an RBI-single from Batz before breaking it open with a five-hit, seven-run second. Senior rightfielder Lisa DiCristofaro and Parks each had run-scoring singles before Roberts, the ninth batter in the inning, drilled a 2-2 pitch over the right-center fence to make it 8-0.

The Diplomats rallied with two runs in the third and three in the fourth to make it an 8-5 game. But the Valley tacked on four runs on four hits in the fourth to set the final score. Nolen and Parks each stroked an RBI-single before DiCristofaro knocked in a pair with a triple.

DiCristofaro was 3-for-4 with three RBIs and a pair of runs in the nightcap while Roberts finished with four ribbies. Batz, Nolen, Roberts, and O’Toole notched two hits each while Parks, Nolen, and Weist all scored a pair of runs.

Albers finished with six strikeouts.

Lebanon Valley plays its Commonwealth Conference opener on Saturday, when it visits Messiah College for a 1 p.m. doubleheader.

[Photo - Junior Jenn Roberts, who threw a four-hit complete game and hit a three-run homer in Lebanon Valley's sweep of Franklin & Marshall on Thursday]

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