ROCHESTER, NY – The RIT softball team (7-11, 0-2 Liberty League) opened up Liberty League play by dropping a pair of games to No. 19 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (18-2, 2-0 Liberty League) from sunny Tiger Stadium Saturday. RPI rallied to win game one, 4-2 and took game two, 11-0 in five innings.
 
In game one, RIT led 2-0 after five innings of play. In the third inning, Madisen Baldwin (Washougal, WA/Washougal) led off with a double to right field before Julia Vaillancourt (Braintree, MA/Braintree) came in to pinch run. Olivia Doret (Fairfax, VA/Chantilly) grounded out to second base, which allowed Vaillancourt to advance to third. Vaillancourt then broke alertly for home on a Hannah Trumble (Pittsford, NY/Pittsford Mendon) grounder to first base, forcing the RPI first baseman to get the out at first, as RIT took the 1-0 lead. In the fourth inning, Brianna Bilich (Penryn, CA/Del Oro) singled home Raquel Estrada (Middletown, NY/Middletown) for a 2-0 RIT lead.
 
The Engineers would get one back in the sixth inning and take the lead with three runs and four hits in the top of the seventh inning. Veronica DeStefano, Erin Askins and Steph Cavallaro had run-scoring hits for the Engineers in the seventh.
 
Torie Adler (West Chester, PA/B. Reed Henderson) was excellent on the mound for RIT in game one, allowing just four hits, while striking out four batters in five shutout innings. Abcde Cortinas (San Antonio, TX/Highlands) came on in relief and took the loss, giving up six hits and four runs in 1 2/3 innings.
 
Askins and Cavallaro had two hits apiece to pace RPI. Erika Holowka improved to 10-1 in 2019, scattering five hits, while allowing two runs (one earned) to go along with six strikeouts in the complete-game win.
 
RPI's bats erupted for 11 runs on 12 hits in game two. The Engineers scored once in the first inning, four times in the third and put the game away with six runs in the fourth.
 
Cam Caswell and Maddie Provencher hit bases-clearing doubles in consecutive innings to combine for six RBI. Allie Hunt was 3-for-4 with two runs scored and two RBI, while DeStefano went 3-for-3 with a double, two stolen bases and three runs scored.
 
Jamie Cleasby picked up the win on the mound, allowing just two hits and a walk, while striking out three batters in the complete-game effort.
 
Trumble and Bilich singled for RIT in game two.
 
RIT is right back in action with a doubleheader at Tiger Stadium on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. versus Liberty League foe Skidmore College.