SELINSGROVE, Pa. – Senior
Bailey Comeau fired a three-hit, 10-inning shutout while breaking the school record for strikeouts in a game with 14 to lead the Rangers to a 2-0 victory over Susquehanna University in the opener of a Landmark Conference doubleheader on Thursday.
The Rangers (25-12, 5-5 LC) nearly erased a 3-0 deficit in the second game and had the tying run on third base in the top of the seventh, but the River Hawks held on for a 3-2 win.
Comeau (11-3) walked only two batters while exceeding the former school record of 13 strikeouts that she shared with Laura D'Ornellas C'15. She struck out at least one batter in every inning but one and fanned two batters in five different innings.
In addition, Comeau broke the Drew record for shutouts with her fifth clean sheet of the season. She also tossed a pair of scoreless innings of relief in the second game, has now thrown 25 consecutive innings without allowing a run, yielding just 10 hits while striking out 30 over the stretch.
Senior
Molly O'Brien scored a run in the opener to tie the single-season school record of 42 set by teammate
Madi Precht last season.
Comeau was in control from the start in the opener, allowing just three baserunners over the first six innings. Two reached on an error and a walk in the second before the River Hawks recorded their first hit in the fourth.
Susquehanna threatened in the seventh, putting the go-ahead run on third with two outs, but Comeau induced an inning-ending flyout, sending the game to extra innings.
The River Hawks put a runner in scoring position in each of the last two innings, first on a one-out double in the ninth, when Comeau escaped with a strikeout and flyout. In the 10th, Susquehanna put a runner on second to start the inning due to the international tiebreaker rule. The runners was bunted to third before a walk put runners on the corners. However, Comeau put out the fire in style with back-to-back Ks.
The Rangers broke through in the top of the 10th, when Precht was placed on second to start the inning. She was bunted over by freshman
Haley Meierhofer before O'Brien bunted her way on base, reaching second when the throw went to third. Freshman
Josie Di Troia followed up with a sacrifice fly to bring home Precht before junior
Madi Baldwin doubled into the left-center gap to score O'Brien with her record-breaking run.
A pair of Susquehanna pitchers split the innings, as Hannah Foust tossed five scoreless innings before Amanda Amerman worked the final five frames.
In the second game, the River Hawks scored one run on three hits versus sophomore starter
Teagan Bradley. However, the Rangers rallied, first scoring on an RBI-single from Meierhofer in the fifth to make it 3-1.
In the top of the seventh, Precht got things started with a one-out infield single. Two batters later, O'Brien drilled a triple to right-center to make it 3-2. But Susquehanna held on as senior reliever Lily Hochhausler ended the game with a groundout.
O'Kleasky finished 2-for-3 with a double in the nightcap. Bradley (6-6) pitched four innings and struck out six.
The Rangers are back in action on Saturday, when they visit Moravian at 1 p.m. in another Landmark Conference doubleheader and the teams's regular-season finale.
