CLERMONT, Fla. (March 15, 2017) – The Rutgers University-Newark softball team took a pair of setbacks Wednesday afternoon in Florida against some excellent competition. The Scarlet Raiders dropped a 3-2 nail-biter in the opener against the University of Rochester (7-1), and they were topped by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (8-2) in the nightcap, 4-0.
 
Rutgers-Newark – now 4-4 on the season – will take Thursday off, but the Scarlet Raiders get back at it Friday with matchups against Plymouth State University (3:30 p.m.) and Carthage College (6 p.m.). The games will be the last two on the team's Spring Break trip in Florida.
 
Rochester 3, Rutgers-Newark 2
The Scarlet Raiders suffered a tight setback in the day's opening game, falling to Rochester, 3-2. The defeat dropped Rutgers to 4-3, while UofR improved to 7-1.
 
Rutgers-Newark jumped in front with a pair of tallies in the second inning, with junior Elizabeth Marflak driving in one with a fielder's choice and junior Morgan Walizer plating the other with an infield single. Freshman Brittany Kalesse had a hit in the inning, and freshman Brielle Mattiello picked up a stolen bag.
 
Rochester sliced the Raider lead in half with a single tally in the bottom half of the third, but Rutgers-Newark starter Kelly Yusko worked out of the jam without further damage and put up a zero in the fourth to keep her team on top (2-1).
 
Yusko sent down Rochester in order in the fifth frame, needing just four pitches for three outs, but the Yellow Jackets tied things at two in the sixth with a two-out hit from freshman Lydia Petricca.
 
In the seventh, Rochester was able to strand a pair of Raider runners in the top half of the inning, and it pushed across the winning run in the bottom half when senior Courtney Semekewyc singled with the bases loaded and nobody out.
 
Yusko suffered the loss in the circle, giving up three runs on 10 hits and striking out two. Senior Eleni Wechsler earned the win for the Yellow Jackets, going the distance and striking out five.
 
Walizer, junior Kayla Gallo and Kalesse had the Rutgers-Newark hits in the game.
 
RPI 4, Rutgers-Newark 0
Walizer started the second contest against the Engineers, and she did so with a bang, striking out the side in the top half of the first.
 
Unfortunately for the Raiders, RPI pushed across three runs on three hits in the third to take the lead (3-0). Yusko came on in relief in the fourth, working around two hits, but the lead remained at three as freshman pitcher Jaime Cleasby was able to navigate around five Scarlet Raider hits in the first five innings.
 
The Engineers scored for the final time in the sixth inning, scoring one run thanks to a double freshman Chelsea Elliot.
 
Junior Sam Held, Yusko and Kalesse had the six Scarlet Raider hits in the game. Walizer went three innings, giving up three runs on four hits (three strikeouts), and Yusko gave up an unearned run on five hits in four innings of work.