Felician Athletics - 4/19/09 SOFTBALL - DeGrushe Has Seven RBI In Sweep Of STAC

LODI, N.J. – Felician College junior infielder Lauren DeGrushe (Guttenberg, NJ/High Tech-North Bergen) drove in seven runs as her team swept a non-conference softball doubleheader from visiting Saint Thomas Aquinas College (STAC), 12-9 and 6-0, on Sunday afternoon at Kennedy Park.

In the opener, DeGrushe hit a tie-breaking grand slam home run to cap a six-run fourth-inning Felician rally that turned a two-run deficit into a 9-5 advantage. The Golden Falcons (9-28) also received a three-run homer from catcher Rebecca Dodd (Oakland, NJ/Indian Hills) in the sixth, a blast that proved to provide the winning margin.

With two outs and no one on base in the top of the seventh, Felician made three errors in a four-batter span. STAC (4-31) brought the go-ahead run to the plate before being retired two hours, 24 minutes after the first pitch.

Golden Falcon right-hander Nicole Broecker (Staten Island, NY/Moore Catholic) scattered 12 hits and threw nearly 160 pitches in a complete-game effort. She struck out six batters and walked two, yielding three earned runs. Nicole Degenhardt (Secaucus, NJ/Secaucus) went 3 for 3 and scored three runs and Samantha Ortiz (Brooklyn, NY/Midwood) hit a solo homer for Felician. The Spartans’ Alyssa Cataldo (Suffern, NY) and Angelina Squillini (Thiells, NY/North Rockland) had three hits apiece. Seventeen of the 18 offensive starters in the game had at least one hit.

Felician sophomore lefty Kristina Jimenez (West Milford, NJ/West Milford) tossed her first career shutout, and her team’s first of 2009, in the nightcap. Jimenez (3-10), who needed 84 pitches for a two-hitter, struck out four and walked one.

The Felician offense did all of its damage in the first four innings. DeGrushe, one of four Golden Falcons with two hits, had an RBI single in the first inning and a two-run double in the fourth. Tiffany Deeubol (Belleville, NJ/Belleville) was 2 for 3 with a double and two RBI. Heather Clausen (Verplanck, NY/Henrick Hudson) and losing pitcher Amanda Forsythe (Massapequa Park, NY/Massapequa) had the STAC safeties. Forsythe yielded 11 hits in a complete game effort.

Game 1 Box
Game 2 Box