Don’t look now, but the Rutgers Scarlet Knights softball team has already won more games this year than they did in the entire 2021 season—and it’s still February.
With a 2-0 victory over the Colgate Red Raiders in their final game of the Pirate Clash on Feb. 20, the Scarlet Knights improved their record to four games over .500, and appear to have found an everyday lineup that works. Ashley Hitchcock pitched a one-hit, complete game gem against the Raiders to even her record on the season as the Knights went into a much-needed, well-deserved five-day break before the Spring Games in Leesburg, Fla.
During the five-game Pirate Clash, Hitchcock pitched in four games, winning three and saving a fourth. Both she and teammate Jaden Vickers were buoyed by a Scarlet Knight lineup which sported a team batting average of .315 with 40 hits, eight of which went for extra bases. In fact, going into this week’s Spring Games, the first four batters in the Rutgers lineup were each batting well over .300, and the team as a whole was sporting a .405 slugging percentage.
The first of Friday night's games brought Princeton, and the Scarlet Knights chalked up their second consecutive shutout, downing the Tigers 5-0 behind a career-high 16 strikeouts from Vickers. The Knights collected their five runs on eight hits, which allowed Vickers to coast to a complete game victory. Even more encouraging for the Rutgers faithful is that the run production came from five different players.
The late game on Friday night saw the Scarlet Knights do battle with the Siena Saints, who had lost to Princeton earlier in the same day. Rutgers sent Hitchcock to the mound to face off against Siena’s Allison Speshyock, and a pitching duel ensued.
Trailing 2-1 in the bottom of the seventh, the Knights loaded the bases with one out as Georgia Ingle stepped to the plate. Ingle then promptly stroked a single to drive home Mya Mancini with the game-tying run. But, when Kyleigh Sand hit into a double play, the Knights found themselves in their second extra-inning game of the young season.
But in extra innings, the Scarlet Knights again found a way, when Callaway knocked one to center scoring Sand from third to give the Knights a 3-2 victory.
The Knights are now 9-3 on the season and appear to have found the much-needed offense that eluded them last year. In addition, the pitching has been solid so far in 2022, with Vickers on her way to what appears to be her best season as a Scarlet Knight. Rutgers has now won seven in a row.
The Knights are back in action this weekend with two games on Saturday, Feb. 26 against FGCU at 1:30 p.m. and North Florida at 4:00 p.m. They then take on Cornell on Sunday, Feb. 27 at 11:30 a.m.
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