BOCA RATON, Fla. (Mar. 2, 2020) - The Queens College softball team opened the 2020 spring campaign on Monday (Mar. 2) playing a Lynn University squad that had already completed nearly twenty games on the spring. The Knights, despite falling in both ends of a doubleheader with the hosts, gave the Fighting Knights a good battle in each contest at the Lynn Softball Field.

Lynn (9-12) would win games by a 5-3 margin and a 4-3 tenth-inning score.

Game One: Lynn 5, Queens (NY) 3
In the first game of the day, the visiting Knights jumped ahead on a two-out fielding error which allowed Noelle Bryggman to score the first run of the day. Lynn responded by having two runs cross home plate in the bottom of the frame with a Mackenzie Wyatt RBI single giving the hosts a 2-1 lead. Queens went back ahead in the top of the third inning as Danielle D'Angelo's two-run single to right field brought home Bryggman and Gabriella Vicidomini to give the Knights a 3-2 advantage. However, the lead would be short-lived; a lead-off walk issued to Kayla Sheffield gave way to a Shayle Arenson RBI double to left-center field which evened the score at 3-3.

Both sides would keep the game level through the next several innings as QC starter Emma Wimmer and Lynn reliever Allyson Jameston twirled zeroes until the fifth frame when Sheffield's two-out home run put the Fighting Knights ahead for good. Brittney Davis added a two-out homer in the sixth inning for Lynn as an insurance marker.

D'Angelo and Vicidomini each collected a hit as Queens only mustered those two base hits in the contest. Bryggman drew two walks to get on base in the Knights' run-scoring innings but QC was held hitless by Jameston over a four-inning relief appearance. Wimmer went the distance for the Knights, striking out two batters in the defeat.

Game Two: Lynn 4, Queens (NY) 3 - Ten Innings
Queens would once again scratch out a first-inning run with Bryggman's lead-off walk and timely base-running leading to an RBI fielder's choice off the bat of Jessica Hickey. QC starter Allie Stanya pitched a 1-2-3 bottom of the first with two strikeouts and the Knights would double their lead in the top of the second inning as Katherine Gallagher sent a solo home run over the left-field fence to give Queens a 2-0 lead. Lynn's Emily Yakel cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the frame with a two-out double that scored Wyatt, but Queens re-took a two-run lead in the top of the fourth inning as Bryggman drove in Ann Grimshaw on a two-out single. The Fighting Knights tied the score in the bottom of the fourth as a back-to-back doubles by Davis and Wyatt scored Lynn's second run with an RBI groundout from Yakel evening up the contest. 

Neither team would score a run through the next five innings, despite Queens putting runners in scoring position in the fifth, ninth and tenth innings. Lynn, likewise, put a runner in scoring position in the bottom of the ninth to no avail; the Fighting Knights would, however, break through in the bottom of the tenth inning. After Lexi Butler reached first base on an error and was moved to second base on a sacrifice, Sheffield walked to put two runners on for the hosts. Arenson fouled out to left for the second out of the inning but Davis sent a Stanya offering down the right field line to plate Butler with the winning run.

Bryggman was 3-for-4 with an RBI in the second game of the contest while four other Knights had a base hit as well. Stanya struck out four in nine-and-two-thirds innings of work for Queens, but the Knights were once again stymied by Jameston in relief. In the second game, Jameston would pitch six-and-a-third innings of three-hit ball for Lynn with three strikeouts.

Queens continues its Florida trip with a doubleheader on Tuesday (Mar. 3) against Barry University in Miami Shores. First pitch between the Knights and Buccaneers is set for 5 p.m.