BRONX, NY (NJCUGothicKnights.com) | In the first doubleheader of the northern portion of its 2016 schedule, the New Jersey City University softball team pounded out a combined 25 runs and 28 hits as the Gothic Knights swept a non-conference matchup from Yeshiva University, 9-3 and 16-2, on March 15 under the lights at Fordham University.
 
NJCU evens its record at 5-5 overall, improving to .500 while matching its win total from each of the past two seasons just 10 games into the 2016 campaign. Yeshiva falls to 1-3.
 
Junior first baseman Brittany Paulikas (Fords, NJ/John F. Kennedy Memorial), the New Jersey Athletic Conference Player of the Week, solidified that notation by producing a combined 6-for-7 with four runs, three RBIs and three doubles. She upped her season average to .571 (16-28) with 11 RBIs, eight runs and seven extra base hits. She is now batting 16 for her last 18 at bats—a mind-boggling .889 average.
 
Freshman catcher Hannah Gavin (Bordentown, NJ/Bordentown) batted 4-for-8 with four runs, three RBIs and four extra base hits in the two games and freshman third baseman Gabriella Contey (Jersey City, NJ/Saint Dominic Academy) combined to bat 4-for-8 with three runs.
 
Game 1: New Jersey City University 9, Yeshiva University 3
Trailing 2-1 after three innings, NJCU posted four runs in the fifth and three in the sixth, while outhitting the Maccabees, 14-8. The first four batters in the Gothic Knight lineup combined for 10 hits.
 
Paulikas was 3-for-4 with two runs, two RBIs and a double while Gavin had a breakout game, going 2-for-4 with two runs and an RBI. Both hits were extra base hits as she tallied a double and a triple.
 
 

Sophomore Cristina Otero (Jersey City, NJ/North Bergen), who entered the game as a reserve in right field, batted 3-for-4 with two runs and a triple out of the leadoff spot and Contey was 2-for-4 with a run and RBI.
 
Senior right-handed pitcher Jayla Lee Vega (Hoboken, NJ/Hoboken) improved to 3-1 on the season. In 7.0 innings, she allowed one earned run and eight hits, striking out 10 batters against two walks. She notched the most strikeouts for an NJCU pitcher in three years.
 
Rachel Mirsky, the losing pitcher, did hit a seventh inning solo homer; she batted 2-for-4. Hannah Dubin, the second baseman, also had two hits. Mirsky (1-1), gave up eight earned runs on the 14 hits with two strikeouts and a walk.
 
YU struck first in the second inning when shortstop Erin Potasnick led off with a triple then scored when the ball was misplayed in right. NJCU stranded the bases loaded in the second after four hits but sophomore designated player Melissa Mendoza (Union City, NJ/Union City) who led off with a single, did score the tying run on a Paulikas RBI single.
 
An error in the third gave YU a 2-1 lead before NJCU tied it in the third when sophomore left fielder Juliana Squeo (Carlstadt, NJ/Becton Regional) singled, stole second, then scored on a passed ball and wild pitch.
 
Even at 2-2, the Knights put the game away in the fifth, scoring four times on five hits. Otero led off with a single and scored on an RBI single by Contey before Paulikas singled. After an error pushed a run across, Gavin doubled and a sacrifice fly by freshman second baseman Victoria Moyeno (Jersey City, NJ/Hudson Catholic) made it a 5-2 lead. An RBI single by Vega knocked in the sixth run.
 
NJCU added three insurance runs in the sixth as Otero tripled with one out and was driven in when Paulikas had a two-out double to left. Gavin followed with the third extra-base hit of the inning, a triple to right center, before she came home on a wild pitch.
 
Game 2: New Jersey City University 16, Yeshiva University 2 (5 innings)
NJCU scored 14 unearned runs in the top of the second inning when 18 batters came to the plate for the Gothic Knights and it scored the most runs in a game since it put up 19 last year against the Maccabees. For the second game in a row, NJCU had 14 hits; YU was limited to four hits.
 
The two through five hitters combined for nine hits, again led by Paulikas who was 3-for-3 with two runs, two doubles, one RBI and a walk in the cleanup spot. Gavin was 2-for-4 with two runs, two RBIs, and two doubles and Moyeno had a nice effort batting 2-for-3 with two runs, two RBIs and a walk. Contey was 2-for-4 with two runs and Squeo scored twice, batting 2-for-2.
 
Freshman righty Christina Mezey (Jersey City, NJ/Saint Dominic Academy), the winning pitcher, scored twice (1-for-2, one RBI, one walk). Vega also scored twice.
 
Mezey won (2-3), as she struck out seven (one walk) while allowing two runs and four hits in 3.0 innings. Mendoza threw two no-hit shutout innings in relief, with a strikeout and walk.
 
Mirsky lost (1-2) despite allowing one earned run. She walked four, struck out two and lost three wild pitches against 14 hits. Offensively, she accounted for YU's only runs, when her third inning two-run homer—her second round-tripper of the game—cleared the fence. She was 2-for-2 with two RBIs and a walk. Michal Alge had the other two hits.  
 
All five errors committed by Yeshiva came in the second inning. NJCU had nine hits in the frame. An Otero sacrifice fly, Paulikas bases-loaded walk and two-run double by Gavin contributed to the early damage. RBI singles from Moyeno, Mezey and Contey later padded the lopsided lead. NJCU added two runs on three hits in the fifth with Moyeno picking up another RBI single.
 
#KnightNotes:

• All-Time Series with Yeshiva: NJCU leads, 4-0.
• The 10 strikeouts by Jayla Lee Vega were the most since former NJCU pitcher Ashley O'Beirne (Wood-Ridge, NJ) had 10 strikeouts against University of Dallas on March 11, 2013 in Fort Myers, FL.
• NJCU is 5-5 after 10 games for the first time since opening the 2013 season at 5-5.

 
What's Next?:
NJCU continues its road trip on Thursday, March 17 at 4 p.m. when it faces Brooklyn College in a non-conference doubleheader in Brooklyn, NY. NJCU leads the all-time series, 9-6. The teams split a doubleheader in Jersey City on April 9, 2015 with NJCU winning, 4-3 and BC answering in game two, 11-4.