FLUSHING, N.Y. (Apr. 16, 2019) - One swing of the bat by senior outfielder Nicole Michaels changed the complexion of the day for the Queens College softball team. Instead of a 2-2 tie in the first game of a doubleheader with Mercy on Tuesday (Apr. 16), Michaels put the Knights ahead for good and kick-started a slugfest that saw QC win 5-2 and then roar past the Mavericks by a 15-7 mercy-rule in the proverbial nightcap at the QC Softball Complex.

Game One: Queens (NY) 5, Mercy 2
Mercy (20-22, 7-11 ECC) grabbed an early lead with a run in the second inning off of QC starter Allie Stanya as an RBI single by Jessica Brandt scored Kaylee Stevens with the game's first run. Queens (6-24, 4-14 ECC) was stymied through the first four innings against Stevens in the circle, with Danielle D'Angelo's single serving as the lone base hit for the Knights through that point of the game. Mercy scored a run in the top of the fifth to extend the lead to a 2-0 edge for the Mavericks but Queens turned a corner and brought the bats out to close out the game.

Gabriella Vicidomini led off the bottom of the fifth with a single and she would score on a two-out single by Beth Bonin to cut the deficit in half. Then in the sixth inning, the Knights broke the doors open with a four-run outburst. A lead-off walk by Lauren Pascual set the table for another free pass issued to D'Angelo. After Jessica Hickey grounded out to advance the runners, Marisa Sagona reached on an error to tie the score at 2-all. Vicidomini popped out to bring up Michaels with two outs and a tie ballgame. On the very first pitch of the at-bat, Michaels sent a ball into right field that cleared all the bases including the senior outfielder herself; an inside-the-park, three-run home run put Queens ahead by a 5-2 score. Stanya then took the circle and pitched a 1-2-3 seventh inning to secure the win for the Knights in the opening contest of the doubleheader.

Game Two: Queens (NY) 15, Mercy 7 - Six Inning Mercy-Rule 
The energy that closed out the first game seemed to put a charge into the Knights as much as it did to the visitors in the second game. The Mavericks scored six runs in the first two innings against Queens starter Emma Wimmer and reliever Macy Kane but the home offense picked the pitchers up as Vicidomini and Sharina Nazario led the charge with two home runs each to guide the onslaught. Vicidomini kicked things off with a solo home run in the bottom of the second inning that put the Knights within a four-run deficit at 6-2. In the next inning, it was Nazario's turn to swat a two-run home run as Queens scored four runs in the frame---the other two on run-scoring singles by Hickey and Sagona---to tie the score at 6-6. 

Queens took the lead in the fourth inning for good as Pascual reached on an error that scored Noelle Bryggman before D'Angelo's two-run triple to right put QC ahead by a 9-6 margin. Vicidomini clobbered her second home run of the game in the very next inning as the Knights soared out to a four-run lead but the Mavericks responded with a run in the top of the sixth. The 10-7 lead ballooned to a 15-7 winning margin in the bottom of the sixth; Nazario's home run started the party and extra-base hits by D'Angelo and Hickey kept things going with Bryggman's RBI single walking the Knights off to the mercy-rule win.

D'Angelo went 3-for-4 with two triples and three runs batted in for the Knights in the second game, with Vicidomini going 3-for-4 as well. Nazario had two hits and three RBI, Hickey collected two hits and drove in two runs and Bryggman and Michaels each had a pair of hits and a run batted in. Kane struck out two batters in her near-five innings of relief to earn the win.

Queens will look to capitalize on the momentum as the Knights host Georgian Court on Thursday (Apr. 18) at 2:30 p.m.