Box Score (Game #1)
Box Score (Game #2)

WAYNE, N.J. – The William Paterson softball team (13-7, 3-3 NJAC) dropped a 2-0 decision to visiting Rutgers-Camden (10-12, 2-4 NJAC) to open a doubleheader April 9, but the Pioneers fought back for a 6-2 victory in the night cap.

GAME ONE
Junior Amanda Cassella tossed a complete-game one-hitter to lead the Scarlet Raptors to a 2-0 opening victory.

Freshman designated player Gabrielle Colon led off the top of the fifth with a home run over the left-field fence, and Rutgers-Camden added a single run in the sixth when catcher Erika Drayton and Cassella hit back-to-back doubles.

Colon was 2-for-3 with the solo homer to lead the Scarlet Raptors at the plate. Cassella struck out four and walked five over 7.0 innings to improve to 9-6.

Senior first baseman Jenna Vitale (Kenilworth, N.J./David Brearley) accounted for the Pioneers' lone hit with a fourth-inning single. WP had a runner on second with one out in the fourth, and runners on the corners with two outs in the sixth, but could not come up with a run-scoring hit. Sophomore Kelsey Hand (Mountainville, N.Y./Cornwall Central) took the loss (4-2), giving up two runs on seven hits while striking out four.

GAME TWO
Three runs in the top of the fifth broke open a 2-2 tie and helped the Pioneers salvage the split with a 6-2 victory.

WP opened the game with a pair of first-inning runs. Junior left fielder Raquel Roder (Hoboken, N.J./Hoboken) started things off with a single up the middle, advanced to second on a wild pitch and was sacrificed by freshman shortstop Katelyn Miele (Flanders, N.J./Pope John XXIII) to third base. She trotted home on a Lindsey Nadolny (Belford, N.J./Middletown North) base hit to left, and Nadolny was promptly sacrificed to second by Vitale. A wild pitch moved Nadolny to third, and she scampered home on a wild-pitch ball four thrown to freshman Jessica Warner (Runnemede, N.J./Triton).

Sophomore Kaitlyn Gaskill homered to left to make it a 2-1 score in the second, and the Raptors tied it up with a single run in the third. After a drop of a foul ball, junior Vicki D'Anduono doubled and Brooke Keenan singled her in.

The Pioneers pulled ahead with a three-run fifth inning. Senior catcher Nicole Jimmerson (North Bergen, N.J./High Tech) drew a leadoff walk and was sacrificed to second by classmate Jillian Mulderig (Sewell, N.J./Washington Twp.). Roder doubled to right-center, plating Jimmerson, and Miele's hard-hit ball off the Scarlet Raptor shortstop's glove resulted in a two-base hit. Vitale later singled to left-center and drove in Roder and Miele for a 5-2 edge.

William Paterson tacked on an insurance run in the seventh, thanks to a Miele two-out double and a Nadolny RBI-triple.

Roder, Miele and Nadolny each had a pair of hits for William Paterson. Junior Michele Graham (Hawthorne, N.J./Hawthorne) allowed two runs (one earned) on four hits, striking out six to improve to 6-3.

Four different Scarlet Raptors got a hit, and Cassella suffered the loss (9-7), giving up six runs on eight hits in 7.0 innings.

The Pioneers will play at New Jersey City Tuesday, April 12, at 3:00 p.m.