MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. – Jordan Barnett (Eads, Colo./Eads [Garden C.C.]) threw a complete-game and Vanessa Cardoza (Santa Ana, Calif./Ocean View) hit a two-run home run as the third-seeded Monmouth University softball team defeated top-seeded Robert Morris, 5-2, Friday afternoon in an NEC Tournament elimination game at the North Athletic Complex. With the win, the Hawks face a quick turnaround with a 3:30 p.m. first pitch against No. 4 LIU Brooklyn in another elimination game for the right to face No. 2 Central Connecticut in the championship series.
Alicia DeSanto (Upper Darby, Pa./Upper Darby) had a team-best two hits and scored the tying run following a leadoff two-base error in the fourth. Tish Derer (Philadelphia, Pa./Saint Basil Academy), Kaitie Schumacher (San Diego, Calif./Scripps Ranch), Christine Scherr (Nazareth, Pa./Nazareth Area), Kayla Weiser (Vandergrift, Pa./Kiski Area) and Cardoza added hits in a balanced Hawks offense. Barnett scattered eight hits without walking a batter, allowing two earned runs in 7.0 innings pitched. She struck out two.
Ashley Gerhart went 3-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored for Robert Morris. Haileigh Stocks added a pair of hits and an RBI. NEC Pitcher of the Year Nicole Sleith took the loss in the circle, allowing five runs, three earned, on five hits and three walks. She struck out one.
RMU struck for one run in the first on a Stocks RBI single. After two scoreless frames, the Hawks got two unearned runs in the fourth. DeSanto reached second on a two-base throwing error and took third on a Schumacher sacrifice bunt. Scherr then tripled into the right field corner to score DeSanto before a two-out fielding error by the second baseman with Cardoza at the plate put the Hawks on top, 2-1.
In the fifth, the Hawks manufactured another run. Flores battled for a leadoff walk, moved to second on a Derer sacrifice bunt, took third on DeSanto's groundout and scored on a Schumacher infield single to the hole at short to stake MU to a 3-1 lead.
RMU responded with a run in the bottom of the fifth. Santillo led off with a single and was pinch run for by Tazawa. Barnett coaxed a fly out and a strikeout, but Gerhart then doubled to left center. The relay throw to the plate was in time, but in the dirt and hopped away from Weiser, allowing Tazawa to score, cutting the Hawks' lead to 3-2.
MU added a pair of runs in the top of the sixth to create a 5-2 cushion. Weiser led off with a single through the right side, before Cardoza's fly ball to right carried over the right-field wall for a two-run homer.
