Softball | 4/19/2014 5:23:00 PM

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

TROY, NY – Tori Hunt and Danielle Balestrini each collected five hits to lead the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) softball team to a doubleheader sweep of the RIT softball team on Saturday afternoon in Liberty League play from Doris Robison Field. With wins of 5-0 and 6-2, the Engineers improve to 16-10 overall (6-2 Liberty League), while the Tigers drop to 4-18 (2-6 Liberty League).
 
RPI jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning of game one. Morgan Kollmeier led off the frame with a double off the fence in center, before Balestrinidropped down a bunt single. A miss-handled ball at first allowed Kollmeier to score all the way from second. Three batters later, Taylor Ten Eyck plated Balestrini with a single to right. Morgan Ten Eyck followed with a sacrifice fly to left to cap the scoring.
 
Taylor Ten Eyck added a pair of insurance runs in the third, when she smacked her team-leading third home run of the season over the wall in left. The two-run shot made it 5-0, and the Engineers were able to hold on from there.
 
Junior righthander Kristina Weltzin improved to 9-3 with the complete-game shutout victory. She allowed four hits in seven innings, striking out six, while walking just two. RIT starter Sierra Valentine (Rochester, NY/Greece Athena) gave up five runs (four earned) on 10 hits in six innings.
 
In game two, RIT struck first on an RBI-groundout off the bat of junior shortstop Sarah Wolcott (Cohocton, NY/Wayland-Cohocton) in the top of the first inning.
 
Rensselaer answered with a five-run second. Dani Grage got the scoring started with a two-run single up the middle. Following an RBI-base hit from Balestrini, Huntdrove home two more with a double down the left field line to make it 5-1.
 
After RIT drew to within 5-2 when Amber Libby (Waterboro, ME/Massabesic) drove a run-scoring single up the middle in the third, the Engineers came back with a sac fly from Taylor Ten Eyck in the fourth, to regain the four-run (6-2) lead.

Victoria Hepworth earned the complete-game win from the circle, surrendering two runs on six hits in seven innings. She struck out five and walked four. Anna Valentine (Pittsford, NY/Pittsford Mendon) went the distance for the Tigers, giving up six runs on nine hits in six innings.

Rensselaer now leads the all-time series between the two teams, 12-3.
 
RIT is back in action on Wednesday with a road doubleheader at Geneseo that gets underway at 3 p.m. From there, the Tigers host three straight doubleheaders against Buffalo State, St. Lawrence, and Rochester.