MADISON, N.J. – The Drew University softball team closed out the 2024 season on a high note, sweeping Wilkes University 4-0 and 3-1 in a Landmark Conference doubleheader on Senior Day at the Drew Softball Complex.
 
The Rangers ended the season on a six-game winning streak while posting a 22-16 record, including an 8-8 mark in Landmark Conference play.
 
Junior Teagan Bradley fired a nine-hit shutout in the opener before freshman Allie Porbansky worked a six-hit complete game in the nightcap.
 
Drew's three seniors – Madi Baldwin, Francesca Laurito, and Molly O'Brien – were honored in a ceremony between games.
 
Drew took an early 2-0 in the first game, scoring twice on three hits in the second inning, when the ball did not leave the infield. Junior MacKenzie Pisani and Bradley opened the inning with back-to-back infield singles and were bunted over by sophomore Olivia Magliacano. Baldwin pushed home the game's first run with a groundout before Laurito bunted in another run.
 
The Rangers tacked on a pair of insurance runs with another three hits in the sixth. Pisani got things started again, this time with a one-out single, before Magliano singled two batters later. Baldwin then followed up with an RBI-single while a second run scored on an outfield error.
 
In the meantime, Bradley (10-7) played the role of Houdini, escaping from numerous jams and leaving nine runners on base over the first five innings. After a three-up, three-down sixth, the Colonels led off the seventh with a single before Bradley retired the last three batters of the game to recorded her third shutout of the season and the sixth clean sheet of her career. She struck out four and walked only two.
 
Pisani led the Rangers at the plate, finishing 2-for-3.
 
The nightcap shaped into a pitcher's duel between Porbansky and Wilkes' Lauren DeMarco, and it was a 1-1 game through four innings of play. Each side pushed across a single run in the fourth, when the Colonels took a 1-0 lead on two hits in the top of the inning. In the bottom half, freshman Cadence Mapes-Klemic opened with a bunt single before and was bunted to second by O'Brien. Junior Fran O'Kleasky then ripped a single down the leftfield line to score Mapes-Klemic to pull the Rangers even.
 
Drew edged in front in the fifth, when Magliacano singled up the middle and was bunted over by Mapes-Klemic. O'Brien then launched a go-ahead double into the right-center gap with what held up as the game-winning RBI. Drew added a run in the sixth, when sophomore Josie Di Troia doubled, was bunted to third by junior Delaney O'Donoghue, and scored on a single from junior Deja Robinson.
 
In the meantime, Porbansky (5-7) worked out of a jam in the fourth, getting a pair of outs to leave a pair of runners on base. She left another runner on base in the fifth and went on to retire the final seven batters she faced. She finished with three strikeouts and did not walk a batter.
 
O'Kleasky finished 2-for-3 to lead the Rangers at the plate in the second game.