Felician Athletics - 3/28/07 SOFTBALL - Felician Splits CACC Openers With Bloomfield

LODI, N.J. – Felician College earned an 8-3 victory over Bloomfield College in its home opener on Wednesday afternoon at Kennedy Park, then settled for a split of the teams’ Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference softball doubleheader with a nine-inning, 3-2 loss in Game 2. The Golden Falcons were ending a three-week layoff.

In Game 1, a four-run bottom of the second inning gave Felician (6-3, 1-1) a 5-2 lead. The Golden Falcons had four hits in the inning and took advantage of two Bloomfield errors. Heather Van Dyke (West Milford, NJ) highlighted the rally with a run-scoring single and a steal of home plate. The Golden Falcons put the game away with three unearned runs in the fifth.

Felician’s Dara DeSocio (Cliffside Park, NJ) (3-0) struck out seven batters and allowed one earned run in a complete-game victory and Van Dyke and Meredith Rainer (Wantage, NJ) each went 3 for 4. Brittany Devries (Islip, NY) was 3 for 4 and scored twice for the Deacons.

Bloomfield’s Erin Covell (Millstone, NJ) drove in the eventual winning run in the top of the ninth inning of the nightcap with international tiebreaker rules in effect. Winning pitcher Fauna Ryerson (West Milford, NJ) then escaped a second-and-third, none-out jam in the bottom of the frame. The Deacons (8-8, 3-3) extended the game on Ryerson’s two-out RBI single in the top of the seventh.

Amanda Byrnes (Ringwood, NJ) had a double and a triple and scored all three runs for the Deacons, who survived six errors and 14 runners left on base. Ryerson struck out three, walked none and did not allow an earned run. Van Dyke went 2 for 4 with two stolen bases and Nicole Broecker (Staten Island, NY) (2-1) pitched all nine innings with nine strikeouts for the Golden Falcons.