FARMINGDALE, N.Y. (NJCUGothicKnights.com) | Farmingdale State College (4-10) scored five runs in its final two turns at bat and rallied past the New Jersey City University softball team (4-12), 5-2 in game one of a non-conference doubleheader on April 5 on Long Island. In game two, NJCU led 2-0 before the Rams posted three runs in the first and third innings and registered an 8-3 win to sweep the doubleheader.
 
GAME 1: Farmingdale State 5, NJCU 2
NJCU scored twice in the top of the first inning and that lead stood up until the Rams tied it in the home half of the fifth. Knotted at 2-2, Farmingdale plated three runs in the sixth inning to win.
 
FSC junior right-handed pitcher Jaxie Collard (Deer Park, N.Y.) was the winner (3-4), allowing two runs and seven hits in 7.0 innings over 71 pitches. Her younger sister, freshman left fielder Lexie Collard (Deer Park., N.Y.) drove in three runs, batting 2-for-4 (one run). Both hits went for extra bases (double, triple).
 
NJCU outhit Farmingdale, 7-5, paced by senior center fielder Julie Squeo (Carlstadt, NJ/Becton Regional) who batted 2-for-3 with two doubles and two RBIs. Freshman first baseman Gianna Benacquista (Belleville, NJ/Belleville) and freshman shortstop Dayanara Flores (Jersey City, NJ/Hudson Catholic via M.E.T.S. Charter) each scored a run.
 
Junior righty Christina Mezey (Jersey City, NJ/Saint Dominic Academy) only allowed five hits in a losing cause, striking out four against five walks over 97 pitches. She no-hit FSC through three innings before allowing a leadoff single in the fourth.
 
NJCU got off to a great start as Benacquista singled, Flores bunted her way one and both scored when Squeo doubled to left for a 2-0 lead.
 
FSC tied it in the fifth. After a one-out walk, Lexie Collard doubled to center and later scored on a sac fly by junior first baseman Sierra Cardenales (Patchogue, N.J.).
 
Squeo led off the visitor's sixth with a double before being doubled off the bag. Farmingdale got the winning runs in the bottom of the sixth. After a leadoff error, freshman Nicole Gabay (Medford, N.Y.) had a pinch-hit RBI single up the middle before Lexie Collard tripled to right center to drive in two runs and make an NJCU comeback more difficult. NJCU had a leadoff single in the seventh before a double play ended the game.
 
GAME 2: Farmingdale State 8, NJCU 3
The Rams scored three runs in the bottom of the first to take a 3-2 lead and added three more in the third, holding off NJCU in a game where each school had seven hits.
 
Cardenales batted 3-for-3 with two runs, two extra-base hits (double, triple) and one RBI to lead Farmingdale. Gabay tossed 3.0 innings of one-hit softball to notch the save in relief of sophomore righty Julia Walpole (Mahopac, N.Y.) who struck out five (two walks) in 4.0 innings to claim the win (1-2). She allowed three runs (one earned) and six hits.
 
Junior third baseman Hannah Gavin (Bordentown, NJ/Bordentown) batted 2-for-4 with a double and run scored and sophomore catcher Arianna Scrimo (Kearny, NJ/Kearny) scored once in a 2-for-3 effort. Mezey suffered the loss (4-12). She threw a combined 206 pitches in the two games.
 
NJCU gained an early 2-0 lead when Gavin doubled to left center with one out before scoring on a throwing error when Flores stole second—one of her two swipes in the game. Flores later came home on an RBI groundout by Squeo.
 
But in the bottom of the frame, FSC got a run on a single and tied the game on a triple to right center by Cardenales. She later scampered home on a wild pitch to claim a 3-2 lead. An unearned run in the second aided by all three NJCU errors in the game, pushed the run to 4-2.
 
Farmingdale picked up three critical runs in the bottom of the third. Cardenales doubled and Gabay singled. A groundout by junior center fielder Aleysha Midgett (Huntington, N.Y.) made it 5-2 and an RBI single by freshman Haley Schmeiser (Northport, N.Y.) added a sixth run. A wild pitch plated a seventh run.
 
NJCU got a run back in the top of the fifth on an RBI single by Flores that knocked in Scrimo. NJCU had four hits in the inning but none after Gabay entered in relief with the bases loaded and no one out.  With the tying run at the plate, she retired the next three batters to get the Rams out of the jam and she continued her excellence in the sixth and seventh innings to seal the win.
  
NOTABLES:

• Series: Eighth and ninth meetings. NJCU leads, 6-3. Farmingdale sweeps NJCU for the first time and has won three of the last four meetings.
• Julie Squeo (Carlstadt, NJ/Becton Regional) has 95 career hits. She is the 20th Gothic Knight with at least 95 career hits. She needs five more hits to become the 14th member of the 100-hit club and the first player to reach the milestone since Marissa Bariso in 2014.

 
UP NEXT:
 

• Weather-permitting, NJCU will host Stockton University in an NJAC doubleheader on Saturday, April 7 at the Thomas M. Gerrity Athletic Complex before playing a makeup twinbill on Sunday, April 8 at home against Ramapo College.

 
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