Game 1 Box Score Game 2 Box Score
ANNVILLE, Pa. – Junior Jenn Roberts threw a four-hit shutout and classmate Jenn Parks was 3-for-4 with six RBIs as the Lebanon Valley College softball team won 8-0 in the nightcap to earn a doubleheader split with Widener University in Commonwealth Conference action Thursday afternoon at the LVC Softball Park.
Widener (15-13, 2-8 CC) rallied with four unearned run in the top of the sixth in Game One en route to a 4-1 win. Mallory Meyer pitched a five-hit complete-game victory in the first game, then threw the opening 5 1/3 innings of the nightcap in a losing effort.
Lebanon Valley (20-6, 6-2 CC) won Game Two in the sixth inning, when it scored four times, due to the eight-run mercy rule. With the win, LVC has reached the 20-win milestone for the second time in school history and for the second year in a row. The team has equaled its best record through 26 games, as last year’s team was also 20-6.
Parks missed hitting for the cycle by a home run in Game Two.
Lebanon Valley gave Roberts all the offense she would need with one run in the first inning. With two out, Parks drilled a 2-2 pitch into the right-center gap for an RBI-triple.
The score remained 1-0 until the fifth inning, when Parks struck with two outs once again. With runners on second and third, she stroked a single up the middle to score both runners and moved to second on the throw home. Roberts followed up with an RBI-double to deep right, making it 4-0.
Lebanon Valley chased Meyer from the game in the sixth, putting runners on first and second following a lead-off, pinch-hit single by freshman Courtney Grimm and a one-out walk from senior Lisa DiCristofaro. Stephanie Ricciardi was then summoned from the bullpen, and junior Amy Batz loaded the bases when she hit a ball that was dropped in centerfield. Parks then delivered for the third time in the game, drilling a bases-clearing double into the left-center gap before Roberts ended it with an RBI-double down the rightfield line.
In the circle, Roberts (7-2) had only one three-up, three-down inning – the first – but she stranded six Widener baserunners. The Pioneers’ best chance to score came in the sixth, when it had runners on the corners with two out, but Roberts recorded her fifth and final strikeout to get out of the jam.
Roberts, who walked three, posted her fourth win in a row. She was also 2-for-4 at the plate with two RBIs.
DiCristofaro was 2-for-3 with two runs scored in the nightcap.
Junior Kelly O’Toole started for LVC in Game One and was impressive early, retiring 16 of the first 19 batters she faced while shutting out the Pioneers through the first five innings. Lebanon Valley took a 1-0 lead in the third when sophomore leadoff hitter Lauren Sanford walked with one out, moved to second on a groundout, and scored from second when Batz singled up the middle.
Lebanon Valley appeared to be out of the sixth inning when O’Toole induced an infield pop-up with two out. But the ball was dropped, putting runners on the corners, and Jill Boschetti followed up with an RBI-single. One batter later, Stephanie Caulford lined a three-run homer to right-center, her Commonwealth Conference-leading eighth round-tripper of the season, to make it 4-1. Senior Alisa Albers then came on to shut out Widener over the final 1 1/3 innings.
LVC rallied in the bottom of the seventh, loading the bases with one out. But Meyer got a strikeout and flyout to end the game.
O’Toole (5-3) finished with seven strikeouts and no walks while yielding six hits. Meyer (10-8) scattered five hits while striking out four and walking two.
Batz was 2-for-4 in Game One for the Valley.
Lebanon Valley returns to Commonwealth Conference action on Tuesday, when it hosts conference front-runner Albright College at 3 p.m.
[Photo - Junior Jenn Parks, who drove in six runs in Lebanon Valley's 8-0 win over Widener on Thursday]
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