Softball | 5/1/2011 4:55:18 PM
Click here for game one stats
Click here for game two stats
ROCHESTER, NY – The RIT softball team closed out the regular season by earning a sweep of Empire 8 foe Nazareth (5-29, 1-13 Empire 8) on Sunday afternoon at RIT Field. RIT won game one, 4-0, then took game two by a score of 6-0. RIT finishes the regular season 21-10, while earning the No. 2 seed in next weekend's Empire 8 Tournament with an 11-3 mark in league play. The Tigers have now won nine of their last 10 games.
It is the second time this season that RIT won both ends of a doubleheader by a shutout. The Tigers now have seven shutouts in 2011.
In game one, RIT played sparkling defense behind senior hurler
Carlissa Cole (Alden, NY/Alden), who scattered seven hits to record her third shutout of the season. Cole now has eight straight wins and improved to 12-3 on the year with a 1.88 earned run average. She has an 8-0 record with a 1.02 earned run average and 0.98 WHIP over her last nine appearances.
Cole now has 11 career shutouts.
Nazareth threatened in the top of the fourth inning, as with one out, Sarah Clipperly doubled. The next batter, Casey Mathers singled to left center. Clippery tried to score from second, but was gunned out at home plate after a perfect relay from
Shannon McCormick (Auburn, NY/Auburn) to
Tori Nadow (Charlton, MA/Shepherd Hill) to catcher Megan O'Connell, who perfectly blocked home plate.
The Tigers scored a pair of runs in both the second and third innings. O'Connell and
Allee Emmi (Cicero, NY/Cicero-North Syracuse) each had run scoring singles in the second inning, while
Michelle Tabisz (Silver Spring, MD/Paint Branch) clubbed her team-leading fourth home run of the season in the following frame.
Cole was 3-for-3, while
Brittany Kemp (Dansville, NY/Wayland-Cohocton) was 2-for-3. Nine different Tigers combined to record 12 hits.
In game two, Kemp fired a complete-game two hit shutout, walking just one, and striking out 12, on shy of her career high, set on April 9 against Utica. It is Kemp's third shutout of the season, and sixth in just two seasons at RIT. She lowered her earned run average to 2.53 and now has 118 strikeouts in just 91 innings.
Cole gave RIT a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning, ripping a two-run double down the left field line to score
Emily Courtney (Berlin, CT/Kingswood-Oxford) and Nadow. In the fourth inning, Cole reached on an error and scored on a triple to the gap in left center field. The throw from the outfielder into third was muffed by the Nazareth third baseman, allowing Kemp to score.
Tabisz added a run scoring single in the fifth and Emmi did the same, slamming a RBI double in the sixth.
RIT's 21 wins are the most in a season since 2004, when they 24-16. The 31 regular season games played are the fewest since RIT played just 30 in 1995. The Tigers had four non-league doubleheaders washed out due to inclement weather.
The Tigers are just one home run shy of tying the school's single-season record of 17, done in 2009.
RIT honored Cole, Kemp, and Emmi before the game, all of whom played in their final regular season home games at RIT Field on Sunday.
The Tigers will play St. John Fisher in the Empire 8 Tournament on Friday morning at 10 a.m. in Ithaca.
