College Softball
University of Pennsylvania 5, Rider University 0
University of Pennsylvania 12, Rider University 4 / 5 innings

LAWRENCEVILLE—The Rider University softball team was swept in a non-conference doubleheader against the University of Pennsylvania on Saturday afternoon at Herb and Joan Young Field.

Penn (11-7) won the opener 5-0 with a complete game one-hitter and the Quakers used a nine-run fifth inning to turn a 4-3 deficit into a 12-4 mercy rule victory.

In the opener, Penn used three walks and a sacrifice fly in the first inning to take a 1-0 lead.

In the third inning, the Quakers took advantage of a dropped fly ball and an RBI double, all with two outs to push the Bronc deficit to 2-0.

Rider (3-18) committed five errors in the game and had 11 errors in the doubleheader.

Penn hit a two-run home run and added an RBI double in the top of the seventh inning for the final score.

Alexis Sargent retired the first 10 Rider batters in a row before Toni Nino reached on a wild pitch after a strikeout.

Sargent had her no-hitter broken up in the bottom of the seventh inning when with two outs, senior Kim Valdes (Jupiter's Fla./King's Academy) hit a pop-up over the pitcher's mound and all four infielders watched the play before the Quaker first baseman made an unsuccessful late dive.  Valdes now has 96 career hits.

“We don't make it easy,” said head coach Jaci Timko.  “Offensively, we are thinking way too hard and are looking for reasons to stop our swing instead of being aggressive.  You saw the way Penn played, they had an approach at the plate and were aggressive.  We looked at way too many pitches and then had to battle to foul off pitches with two strikes.”

Sargent finished with 14 strikeouts.

Rider's Megan Ailand (Burlingame, Calif./Burlingame) threw a complete game, recording one strikeout while scattering eight hits and allowing three earned runs.

In the second game, trailing 2-0, senior Montana Berg (Danville, Calif./Monte Vista) hit a home run to left center field to get the Broncs within one run in the bottom of the second inning and later that inning, sophomore Toni Nino (Adelanto, Calif./Silverado) hit an RBI single, scoring junior Morgan Benedetti (Ewing) who reached on a single, tying the game 2-2.

Trailing 3-2, Rider took a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the fourth inning when freshman Kiera Swank (Bear, Del./Caravel Academy) was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and Nino scored on a wild pitch, also with the bases loaded.

Nino had three of Rider's nine hits in the doubleheader.

Penn sent 14 batters to the plate in the fifth inning and had 10 of its 12 hits in the game, including two home runs in the same inning by Leah Allen to turn the one-run deficit into an eight run lead.

“One bad inning,” Timko said.  “We made some mistakes.  I think we relaxed a little bit when we took the lead and we need to work on keeping that aggressive mind set for all seven innings.”

Rider hosts Princeton University in a single game on Wednesday at 4pm.

-RU-