SWARTHMORE, Pa. (March 26, 2017) – The Rutgers University-Newark softball team picked up a pair of wins Sunday at Swarthmore College to improve to 8-6 on the 2017 season.
 
The Scarlet Raiders won the opener by a score of 9-1 behind junior Kelly Yusko, and the guests won the nightcap, 2-0, on the back of a complete-game beauty from junior Morgan Walizer.
 
Rutgers-Newark 9, Swarthmore 1
Yusko threw a complete-game four-hitter and went 3-for-4 at the plate to guide the Scarlet Raiders to the win in the opener.
 
The Pennsylvania native tossed six strong frames, allowing just a single unearned run with no walks and two strikeouts, and at the plate she recorded three singles in four trips with two runs scored and an RBI. She is now 5-3 on the season.
 
Trailing 1-0 entering the fourth inning, the Scarlet Raiders took the lead for good with two runs in the frame. Freshman Sarah Stiehler drove in classmate Brittany Kalesse with the team's first marker of the day thanks to a double, and freshman Brielle Mattiello plated Steihler with a run-scoring single.
 
After Yusko worked around double in the bottom of the fourth, the Scarlet Raiders essentially sealed the win with six runs on six hits in the fifth. Juniors Morgan Schweitzer and Sam Held singled to start the inning, and Yusko drove in one with a single. Stiehler and Mattiello base knocks each drove in a run, and a productive ground ball from junior Elizabeth Marflak made it 6-1 R-N. Later in the inning, Schweitzer came to the plate again, coming through with a two-run single to plate runs seven and eight.
 
A Kalesse single in the sixth pushed across Yusko to give R-N an eight-run lead, and Yusko ended it with a one-two-three sixth to lock down the triumph.
 
Along with Yusko, Schweitzer had three hits, going 3-for-4 with two RBI. Stiehler and Mattiello each had two hits, two RBI and a run scored as Rutgers pounded out 13 hits and nine runs in the opener.
 
Fact: Rutgers-Newark had 13 hits in the game, but left just six runners on base.
Fact: Kelly Yusko scattered four hits in the win while recording three of her own.
 
Rutgers-Newark 2, Swarthmore 0
Walizer was masterful in the nightcap, scattering six hits with two walks and three strikeouts. The win is her third of the season, and she has now hurled three complete games as well.
 
Rutgers-Newark pushed across the only run it would need in the first inning. Junior Sam Held singled with two outs to start the rally, and she eventually scored on an infield base hit from junior Kayla Gallo.
 
Walizer stranded the bases loaded in the first, but retired the side in order in the second and third to keep Rutgers-Newark in front. She again stranded the bases loaded in the fourth, and worked around single baserunners in innings five, six and seven for the impressive win.
 
The Scarlet Raiders scored one insurance tally in the sixth, using a run-scoring Stiehler single for a 2-0 advantage.
 
R-N totaled six hits in the second game, getting one apiece from Held, Yusko, Gallo, Schweitzer, Kalesse and Stiehler.
 
Interesting…: Rutgers-Newark had 19 hits and scored 11 runs in the doubleheader but had only two extra-base hits – both doubles. One was off the bat of Stiehler, the other from Kalesse.