Strong Pitching Leads Day Two Sweep

CAPE CORAL, Fla. (March 8, 2011) - Two outstanding pitching performances from Drew starters Adriana Durso (Old Tappan, N.J./No. Valley Old Tappan) and Alyscia Zulauf (Livingston, N.J./Livingston) helped the Rangers improve to 3-1 on the season.

Game 1 - Box Score
Durso turned in the better of her two performances of the year in a 5-1 victory over Regis College in the morning game. The senior went all seven innings for the Rangers and tied her career-high in strikeouts by fanning 11 batters. The one, unearned run came in the first inning in which Durso was able to escape a Pride rally by striking out two batters.

The Ranger offense was held to just two hits over the first three innings of play but finally came alive in the bottom of the fourth. Freshman Lexie Forsell (West Windsor, N.J./West Windsor Plainsboro) led off the inning with double down the left field line. She would advance to third when Jeramie Barletta (Madison, N.J./Madison) reached on an error and later scored on a passed ball. Jillian Lusk (Scotch Plains, N.J./Scotch Plains) would then drive in Barletta to give the Rangers a 2-1 lead.

Drew would score on the next two at bats to help close the door on the Pride. After scoring one run in the fifth, the Rangers would tack on two more runs in their final plate appearance. Barletta would pick up her first RBI of the year to score Kati Eggert (Denville, N.J./Morris Knolls) and freshman Brooke Nwosu (Freehold, N.J./Freehold Twp.) would get credit for an RBI after drawing a bases loaded walk.

Durso would finish the game strong, sitting the Pride down in order and recording two strikeouts in the top of the seventh.

Game 2 - Box Score
Pitching was again the key in the afternoon session as Zulauf would earn her first victory of the young season. The junior allowed only one baserunner in the first three innings of play. The Rangers would also provide their pitcher with a two-run cushion in the bottom of the first. With two outs and Eggert on base after a lead-off single, Lusk was able to drive a ball up the middle to get Drew on the scoreboard. The Rangers added one more run later in the inning to make the score 2-0 at the end of one.

Northland would not go down easy and was able to take a 3-2 lead in the top of the fourth inning. The Rangers would storm back in the bottom half of the inning and take a 4-3 lead courtesy of an RBI single by Forsell and an RBI groundout by Nwosu making the score 4-3.

Just as quick as the Rangers regained the lead, they saw it erased by a two-run Lumberjack fifth that would give Northland a 5-4 advantage. Jen Mateo (Union City, N.J./Union City) would help ignite a three-run rally and cap off a three-hit, two run day to lead off the bottom of the fifth inning. With the first two runners aboard and no outs, Head Coach Tammy Evans elected to have Brooke Gagliano (Freehold, N.J./Freehold Twp.) sacrifice both runners over to second and third. The move would pay dividends as Eggert was able to force a run in on an RBI groundout and error by the pitcher allowing the go-ahead run, Mateo, to cross the plate.

Nwosu would add insurance with an RBI single to right field to put the Rangers up 7-5 going into the sixth inning. Zulauf would pitch nearly a perfect six and yield to Durso for the final inning. Durso's eighth inning of the day would see the first to runners reach base but no damage was done. She would induce a fly ball from the Lumberjack cleanup hitter and get a game-ending double play made by Eggert to earn her fifth career save.

The Rangers will return to action tomorrow afternoon beginning at 1:00 PM when they take on Clark University followed by a battle with Neumann College at 3:00 PM.