ANNVILLE, Pa. – Freshman
Riley Gerenda pitched her fourth consecutive shutout and junior
Sammi O'Connor hit a home run leading Albright to a 2-0 victory over Lebanon Valley in game two of a Commonwealth Conference doubleheader on Tuesday at the Lebanon Valley Softball Park.
The victory by the Lions in game two snapped a 15-game losing streak to Lebanon Valley. Albright's last win against the Dutchmen came on April 24, 2007.
Lebanon Valley won game one of the doubleheader 8-3 in the Commonwealth opener for both teams.
Albright, which improved to 8-2 overall and 1-1 in conference play, broke a scoreless tie in the top of the fourth inning of the second game.
Brianne Long led off the inning with a single to right and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by
Regina Milburn.
Long moved to third base following a groundout and O'Connor then blasted a home run to right center scoring Long and giving the Lions a 2-0 lead.
It was more than enough for Gerenda who made the lead stand up by scattering eight hits. She did not walk a batter and struck out two in her seven innings of work.
Gerenda worked out of several jams early in the game.
Jordyn Miller and Jasmine Dutton led off the Lebanon Valley second inning with back-to-back singles and moved up a base on a sacrifice bunt, but Gerenda recorded a groundout and a fly out to work out of the jam.
In the Lebanon Valley fourth inning, the Dutchmen had runners on the corners with two outs but Gerenda wriggled out of the inning by inducing a ground ball to third to retire the side.
With the win Gerenda raised her record to 4-0 on the season.
O'Connor finished with two hits for the Lions, while Long,
Armida Roman,
Sera Stull,
Zoe Robertson and Gerenda each had hits in game two.
Lebanon Valley (2-8, 1-1) used timely hitting and took advantage of Albright fielding errors to post the 8-3 victory.
The Dutchmen jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning when Emily Johnson hit a three-run homer.
Albright responded with a pair of runs in the top of the second inning courtesy of the long ball.
With two outs, Stull singled to right and
Morgan Cullen followed with her second home run of the season to cut the Lebanon Valley lead to 3-2.
Lebanon Valley used three Albright errors and a three-run homer by Jasmine Dutton to score five times in the top of the fifth inning to expand the lead to 8-2.
Albright trimmed the lead to 8-3 in the top of the sixth inning when Milburn produced an RBI groundout that scored Robertson who had doubled to lead off the frame.
Kaela Romano, Stull, Cullen and Robertson picked up base hits for Albright in game one.
Albright will return to action on Saturday (March 28) when it hosts Hood in a Commonwealth Conference doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m.
