Kissimmee, FL – Junior righthander
SAM KEATING tossed a two-hit shutout in the second game as Montclair State split a pair of contests at the Rebel Spring Games on Wednesday.
Keating blanked Penn State Berks 3-0 after Montclair (3-3) fell to Rhodes College, 4-2 early in the morning. Montclair State will face St. Joseph's (LI) and Muskingum
University on Thursday, March 9 at 9:00 am and 1:30 pm, respectively.
Keating, who lost an eight-inning decision on Monday, picked up her first win of the year squaring her record at 1-1. The righty allowed just two singles and faced four batters over the minimum, striking out one and walking two.
MSU would get the only run Keating turned out to need in the bottom of the first inning. A dropped foul ball gave new life to leadoff hitter
NOEL HODGINS, who stroked a triple. Two batters later,
BLAKE SAPERSTEIN grounded out scoring Hodgins with the game's first run.
Keating ran into a jam in the second as Berks (3-3) loaded the bases with one out. However, Keating induced the pitcher's best friend, a third-to-home-to-first double play to escape the inning.
Clinging to the one-run lead, Montclair widened the gap in the sixth inning with two runs. Hodgins and
ALEX ZULLA opened the inning with back-to-back singles. After a sacrifice moved both runners up,
LIA STAMILE lined out to center that scored Hodgins for the 2-0 lead.
ELENA RADESICH followed with a double as Montclair built a three-run cushion.
Keating set Berks down 1-2-3 in the seventh as she finished the game retiring seven of the final eight hitters she faced.
Hodgins and Zulla had two hits apiece for Montclair State.
Against Rhodes, MSU fell behind in the second innings as Jill Healy belted a two-run homer giving the Lynx a 2-0 advantage. Montclair would get those runs back in the third when Saperstein singled with two outs driving home Hodgins and Zulla knotting the game at 2-2.
Rhodes went back on top in the fourth as pinch-hitter Sam Tierney doubles down the left field line bringing home two runs.
Freshman righthander
NICOLE MAJEWSKI (1-1) took the loss for the Red Hawks.