April 10, 2007 - Rutgers 11 Rider 3
April 10, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
College Softball
Rutgers University 11, Rider University 3
LAWRENCEVILLE—Despite making six errors, Rutgers defeated Rider in a non-conference softball game on Tuesday afternoon. “We didn’t take advantage of the mistakes that were made and we made too many mental errors ourselves,” said head coach Tricia Carroll.
For the Scarlet Knights, Sarah Kalka had three hits including a home run and scored three times with Mallory Miller adding two hits including a home run and three RBI.
Amanda Heller also homered and had three RBI for Rutgers (14-20).
Rutgers jumped out to a 5-0 lead before Rider (5-17) scored twice in the fourth inning, keyed by a two-run single from senior Desiree Harbaugh (Frederick, Md./Gov. Thomas Johnson).
The Broncs made it a 5-3 game in the fifth scoring on a balk after two Scarlet Knight errors.
Rutgers scored three in the sixth and added three in the seventh to put the game away.
“I’m frustrated,” Carroll said. “We didn’t do a very good job of handling plays today. We made a lot of mental errors and you need to play a step ahead and anticipate what you are going to do when the ball is hit to you and not react and have to think after the ball is hit. By then you are a step too slow and the play is over. That’s a problem that we’ve been trying to resolve all season.”
Sophomore Lauren Brunner (Chino, Calif./Chino) went the distance for Rider, scattering 15 hits.”
“We gave up six walks today,” Carroll said. “And that’s way too many. You can’t field a walk. Our pitching has to be stronger as we head in conference play this weekend. We also struck out seven times and when we did put the ball in play, they [Rutgers] made mistakes and we didn’t put the ball in play enough today.”
Carissa Conroy went the first three innings for Rutgers allowing two hits to pick up the win.
Freshman Amber Affholter (Trenton, Mich./Southgate-Anderson) went one for three with a run scored and hit the ball hard each time up. “Amber is battling back from injury,” said Carroll. “She needs at-bats to regain her confidence and today you saw the kind of things that she will be able to do for us.”
Junior Tiffany Day-Neutill (Agoura Hills, Calif./Oaks Christian) also had a single for Rider. “Tiffany had good contact today,” Carroll added. “She put the ball in play and has been swinging the bat well for us.”
Rider travels to Delaware for a non-conference doubleheader on Wednesday before opening conference play at Siena and Marist this weekend.
“The conference schedule actually worked out for us,” said Carroll. “With working the freshmen into the lineup and battling through the injuries that we’ve had, the extra week or so before the conference games has allowed us to get three to four more games out of league so we can work some of those issues out. But I told them that the non-conference schedule is pretty much done and we need to get it going now. You can’t just turn on a switch and have a high level of intensity. It has to be consistent throughout and today’s energy level was not acceptable.”
-RU-
