Softball Earns Split with Johnson & Wales

WEST HARTFORD, Conn. – University of Saint Joseph freshman Patti Sciglimpaglia (Norwalk, Conn.) had two hits and four RBI and earned her third consecutive pitching win Saturday as the Blue Jays defeated Johnson & Wales 7-3 to earn a split of a Great Northeast Athletic Conference doubleheader.

Taylor Cwalinski (Jackson, N.J.) pitched a four-hit shutout and struck out 13 in the first game as Johnson & Wales won, 5-0. Saint Joseph is 10-6 overall on the season and 3-3 in the GNAC. Johnson & Wales is 7-11 and 3-5.

Tayla Gardner (Orangeburg, N.Y.) hit a three-run homer to left center in the first inning for Johnson & Wales and the Blue Jays were never able to advance a runner past second base in the opener.

Saint Joseph started quickly in the second game, scoring four times in the first inning. Haley McCall (Lebanon, Conn.) and Stephanie Valerio (Wolcott, Conn.) singled and Emily Hummel (Hebron, Conn.) reached on a fielder's choice to load the bases. Ashley Gall followed with a two-run single through the right side and Sciglimpaglia did the same to score two more runs. Hummel, who scored on Sciglimpaglia's hit, scored her 87th career run, which set a career school record, surpassing Antionette Marciano, who scored 86 times from 2007-09. Hummel also scored in the fifth and has 88 runs scored and Stephanie Valerio, who also scored again in the fifth, finished the day at 86 for her career.

Cwalinski had an RBI-double and Cynthia Proby (Bremerton, Wash.) a two-run single in the top of the fifth inning to pull JWU within 4-3. But USJ answered with three in the bottom half for the final margin. The Blue Jays scored their first run of the rally on an error and Sciglimpaglia scored Hummel and Valerio with a two-run double to right center.

Sciglimpaglia struck out five and walked one to earn her third complete game win in five days.

Saint Joseph returns to action Tue. April 2 in a 3 p.m. non-conference doubleheader at Western New England.