St. John's University Athletics
St. John's University
Notre Dame
Red Storm Drops Sixth Straight, Swept at Notre Dame
4/22/2005 12:00:00 AM | Softball
April 22, 2005
Game 1 Box Score (Notre Dame 8, St. John's 0)
Game 2 Box Score (Notre Dame 8, St. John's 0)
Notre Dame, IN - The St. John's University softball team managed only two hits and struck out 19 times on their way to getting swept by Notre Dame this afternoon in a pair of 8-0 five inning games. Junior Megan Oliver (Endicott, NY) collected both Red Storm hits, as they fall to 17-28-1 overall and 4-8 in the BIG EAST, while the Irish improve to 34-9 overall and remains perfect at 10-0 in the league.
Notre Dame took an early lead in game one on a solo home run down the left field line by Meagan Ruthrauff to lead off the bottom of the second inning.
The Irish added to their lead with four runs in the bottom of the third. With the bases loaded and one out, the first run plated on a wild pitch, allowing the other runners to move up a base. The next three Notre Dame batters would produce runs, on RBI singles by Katie Laing and Mallorie Lenn, sandwiched around a sacrifice fly by Liz Hartmann.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, the Irish closed out the game with three more runs implementing the mercy rule for an 8-0 final. The first run crossed on a close play at home on a groundout to shortstop by Meagan Ruthrauff, followed by a wild pitch to plate the second run of the inning. Katie Laing would end the game with a double into the right centerfield gap, scoring Ruthrauff.
Notre Dame starter Steffany Stenglein retired the final 15 batters she faced, after allowing a leadoff single to Oliver to begin the game. Of the 15 outs, 12 were by the way of a strikeout.
In the bottom of the first inning of game two, the Irish opened up a 2-0 lead. Megan Ciolli tripled down the left field line with one out for the game's first run. After a strikeout for the inning's second out, three straight walks expanded the lead to 2-0, before Red Storm starter Lisa Geer (Anaheim, CA) struck out Carrie Wisen swinging to leave the bases loaded and escape further trouble.
Geer again left the bases loaded in the bottom of the second inning, as she allowed a single and walked two more, but got Katie Laing to pop out to second base to end the rally.
After two scoreless innings, Notre Dame expanded the lead to 5-0 with three runs in the bottom of the fourth. With two down, a RBI double by Megan Ciolli and consecutive RBI singles by Meagan Ruthrauff and Katie Laing accounted for the three Irish runs.
The Irish again ended the game in the bottom of the fifth inning with three runs for another 8-0 mercy rule final. Three straight singles to begin the inning, topped off by an RBI hit by Sara Schoonaert scored the first run. The final two runs came across due to two Red Strom errors ending the contest.
The Red Storm continue BIG EAST play on Sunday, April 24 when they travel to Pittsburgh to take on the Panthers in a doubleheader scheduled to begin at 11 am.
