FLUSHING, N.Y. - The Queens College softball team moved to 10-6 on the season Tuesday afternoon, and improved to 3-5 in East Coast Conference play after sweeping visiting St. Thomas Aquinas College in a doubleheader. The Knights received strong pitching from freshman Isabelle Yaroch (Annandale, Va.) in garnering a 2-0 victory in the opener, before capitalizing for a 5-4 win in the nightcap.
Game 1: Queens 2, St. Thomas Aquinas 0
Yaroch allowed just two hits and three walks while striking out a season-best 10 hitters, in garnering her first collegiate shutout -- and the Knights' first blanking of the 2012 campaign.
Freshman Samantha Mattsson (Staten Island, N.Y.) went 2-for-2 in the contest, and scored both QC runs -- the first coming in the bottom of the third inning, when she came home as sophomore Melissa Natale (Yaphank, N.Y.) singled up the middle with one out.
Mattsson then reached base in the bottom of the fifth inning, and came home on an infield-fly-rule out to the left side.
Game 2: Queens 5, St. Thomas Aquinas 4
The Knights came from behind on two occasions in order to win the contest. Down 2-0 in the third inning, QC scored three runs when Cat Franzone (Fr., Bay Shore, N.Y.) came home on a wild pitch and sophomore catcher Kaitlyn Crowley (Patchogue, N.Y.) lofted a two-run homer to center field, scoring freshman Sara Schendel (Seattle, Wash.).
The Spartans responded with two unearned runs in the top of the fifth inning to take a 4-3 advantage, before Franzone and freshman Jennifer Shereyka (Parlin, N.J.) scored unearned runs on a dropped pop-up with two away in the bottom of the sixth to provide for the final score.
Crowley (double) and Mattsson both went 2-for-4 in the game, while sophomore pitcher Nicole Turato (Garden City, N.Y.) scatted five hits, two walks and four unearned runs while striking out five to move to 6-2 on the season.
Interim head coach John Pisano's Knights are back in ECC action Thursday, when they travel to Old Westbury, N.Y., for a 3 p.m. doubleheader at New York Institute of Technology.
