Troy, NY---- The Sage Colleges softball team hosted the Fighting Blue Jays of NYU-Poly on Sunday at Robison Field for a pair of Skyline Conference games. NYU-Poly took two games as they were a 5-1 winner in the first contest and took the nightcap, 10-1. NYU-Poly improves to 14-10 overall and 8-2 in the Skyline Conference, while Sage drops to 8-15 overall and 4-8 in the league.
Sage returns to action on Tuesday hosting MCLA in a non-conference doubleheader at Robison Field at 3:30 p.m.
Game # 1 NYU-Poly 5-1 Sage
The two squads played a scoreless first two innings before the Jays took a 1-0 lead with RBI sacrifice fly in the top of the third by Megan Moran, which scored Shelby Bruns, who reached on a single and moved to second one an error.
Sage struck right back in the bottom of the fourth when junior Meghan Welcome (Cohoes, NY/Cohoes) earned a free trip with a walk and moved over when junior Rachel Smith (Valatie, NY/Ichabod Crane) singled. Rookie catcher Tricia Gaulin (South Glens Falls, NY/South Glens Falls) drove in Welcome on RBI single to right.
NYU-Poly tacked on four runs in the top of the sixth as Karina Amaro had an RBI single before Corinne Fitzgibbons tagged Sage's Kelsey Newberg (New Britain, CT/New Britain) with a three run home run.
NYU-Poly's rookie Briana Feist picked up the win after seven innings of work with six strikeouts and one earned run off four hits. Sage's Newberg took the loss to drop to 3-6 as she yielded five earned runs with four strikeouts. Newberg continues to add to her season leading strikeout total that now stand at 52 and puts her in the No. 5 spot on Sage's single-season performance list, which is led by Maria DeNovio (72, 2004).
Game # 2 NYU-Poly 10-1 Sage (5 innings)
NYU-Poly struck early with five runs in their first at-bats. Pacing the team as they drove in five runs in the inning was a two RBI double by Feist. In the third inning, Moran had a solo homerun to left field and helped her finish the game with three RBIs .
NYU-Poly's sophomore pitcher Miranda Merilli picked up the win after she worked four innings with one unearned run and seven strikeouts as she improves to 7-4.
Sage's Smith made the start and took the loss after 3.1 innings of work with nine earned runs and four strikeouts. She drops to 3-4.
Gaulin drove in the Gators' lone run with her RBI double to left to score Smith who tagged Merilli for the first hit of her outing in her at bat.
