March 25, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

College Softball
Rider University 3, University of Pennsylvania 2
University of Pennsylvania 12, Rider University 2 / 6 inn.

LAWRENCEVILLE—In games that were as ugly as the weather, the Broncs split a non-conference doubleheader with Penn on Saturday.

For Rider (7-8), senior Heather Beintema (La Mesa, Calif./Grossmont) tossed a complete game in the opener, scattering five hits, allowing only one earned run with four strikeouts to pick up her fifth win of the season.

“Today, I didn’t feel as strong as I felt in Florida,” said Beintema who now has 53 wins in her career at Rider.  “Maybe it had to do with the cold weather, maybe it was just an off day.  I think we are a very strong team and I’m confident that we are going to do well this season.  Today wasn’t a pretty game and it was an ugly win in the game I pitched but we were able to pull out the win and we showed we are able to come back and get the runs when we were down.”

Down 2-0 in the sixth inning, the Broncs used two Penn errors, a hit batsman and two walks, the final one with the bases loaded to sophomore Aimee Schiller (Moreno Valley, Calif./Moreno Valley) to go ahead 3-2.  Beintema retired the Quakers in order in the seventh.

“It’s always been a team effort, especially on a day where our pitching didn’t dominate,” added Beintema.  “We haven’t really been able to rely on one person and it’s easier when the pitchers dominate but it’s never been one person that we have to specifically rely on to pull our a win, it’s been a group effort.  When we are down, I am 100% confident that we can always come back and we showed that effort in the first game.”

In the second game, Penn (8-13) jumped out to a five-run first inning and never trailed, defeating Rider 12-2.  The Quakers took advantage of five Bronc errors as half of the Penn runs were unearned in the game.

“Obviously I’m not happy with the way we played in the second game,” said head coach Tricia Carroll.  “In order to be competitive once the league games start, we can’t have the mistakes that occurred today.  We kind of seem to let things happen instead of taking charge; we made them pay for some mistakes in the first game and we battled back.  The first game was a good win but, we are not playing at the intensity level that we need.  The second game wasn’t good.”

For Rider, senior Jen Cullen (Lake Hopatcong, N.J./Immaculata), junior Nichole Mears (Simi Valley, Calif./Royal) and junior Desiree Harbaugh (Frederick, Md./Gov. Thomas Johnson) each had two hits in the doubleheader with Mears hitting her first home run of the season in the second game.

Rider travels to Lafayette for a doubleheader on Tuesday at 2:30pm.

-RU-