FORT MYERS, Fla. (NJCUGothicKnights.com) | The New Jersey City University softball team got the Ashley Martinez Era started on the right foot, as the Gothic Knights (1-1) defeated Kenyon College (7-2) by a final score of 6-5 to open their season in the first game of the 2019 Gene Cusic Collegiate Classic at the CenturyLink Sports Complex in Fort Myers, Florida on March 9. The Knights lost to University of Saint Joseph (Conn.) (1-1) by a score of 17-11 in a lengthy second half of their opening-day doubleheader.
 
The Knights were led by their pair of returning seniors on the day, as Hannah Gavin (Bordentown, NJ/Bordentown) and Christina Mezey (Jersey City, NJ/Saint Dominic Academy) combined for seven hits, seven RBI, five runs, and a win in the Knights' 2019 first day of action.
 
Game 1: NJCU 6, Kenyon 5
The Knights actually fell behind early in their first game of the season, as it was Kenyon, entering the day 7-1 overall,  who got on the board first, tallying one run and leaving a runner on in the top of the first inning.
 
NJCU didn't respond in the bottom half, but after a shutout second inning from Mezey, the Knights bats broke out. Freshman first baseman Emma Herrick (Sayreville, NJ/Sayreville War Memorial), junior catcher Arianna Scrimo (Kearny, NJ/Kearny), and rookie center fielder Laura Ford (Leonia, NJ/Leonia) hit back-to-back-to-back singles to get things going and force an early change in the circle. That hardly slowed the Knights, though, as the red-hot bats continued with a single from Mezey, a walk for sophomore Zoe Viant (Union City, NJ/Union City), a single for rookie left fielder  Gisselle Vigil (Jersey City, NJ/Dickinson), and a double for Gavin. All that action put the Knights up 4-1.
 
From there, the two teams would trade zeros for a couple innings, until an inside-the-park homerun from senior Britny Patterson (Corona, CA) in the top of the fifth. Patterson curled one down the left field line that got down and kept on going as the softball fence only extended to fair territory, leaving plenty of green for the ball to roll, allowing Kenyon to cut the lead to 4-2.
 
The Knights responded in the bottom half with one of their own, as Gavin collected a leadoff single and came around to score on a Kenyon error later in the inning for a 5-2 edge.
 
The story was the same in the sixth, as each team collected a pair of RBI doubles for their lone run of the inning, with Mezey knocking in Ford for NJCU. The Knights went into the final frame of their first game under head coach Ashley Martinez with a three-run margin, 6-3.
 
The Knights would make their new coach sweat it out a bit, though. After two quick outs, Kenyon got a single, a double, and another single, to pull within one and bring the go-ahead run to the plate. However, Mezey, the seasoned vet, bore down in the clutch, getting the final batter to roll over on a grounder to freshman second baseman Maria Montes (Jersey City, NJ/Ferris) who made the play to seal the first career victory for Martinez.
 
Game 2: University of Saint Joseph 17, NJCU 11
In a lengthy second half of their opening day doubleheader, the Knights and Blue Jays played a wild one, lasting three hours in the Florida afternoon sun.
 
The first inning took nearly an hour all on its own, as the Blue Jays, jumped on the Knights quickly, getting to sophomore pitcher Amber Hunter (Piscataway, NJ/Arts (Newark)) for four runs in the top of the first. However, this was far from Hunter's fault, as all four runs were unearned, the result of the Knights making four errors in the very first inning. The Knights would make up for all of that and way more in the bottom half of the frame, however.
 
The Blue Jays started the game with an error of their own, and then their starter, Alessandra Milardo (Plantsville, Conn.), struggled to find the zone, and the Knights were willing to be patient, collecting five walks in the first inning. Mixed with a triple from Ford and singles from Mezey and Gavin, the Knights put up nine runs in the bottom half of the first to go ahead, 9-4.
 
The Knights bats went quiet for a while after that, though, and the Blue Jays continued to chip away at the lead. Saint Joseph got three in the third and one in the fourth, and while the game was over the two-hour mark after four innings (with the Knights leading 9-8), it carried on and the Blue Jays continued to score. Sophomore Megan Burke (Parkland, Fla.) put the Jays ahead 10-9 in the top of the fifth—a lead they would not relinquish.
 
NJCU did tally a run in the sixth, and in the seventh, they got a run in and had the bases loaded with nobody out, trailing 17-11. The Jays pitcher was once again struggling with command, and a potential comeback seemed possible, especially when sophomore second baseman Dulce Almonte (Jersey City, NJ/Snyder via County Prep) hit a screamer up the middle. But the ball hung in the air a second too long, allowing the Saint Joseph centerfield to make the catch and double off runners at both second and third, thus ending a wild game on a triple play.
 
OF NOTE:

• Hannah Gavin (Bordentown, NJ/Bordentown) collected three hits on the day, bringing her to 87 career hits with the Knights—13 away from the 100-hit club.
• Freshmen Emma Herrick (Sayreville, NJ/Sayreville War Memorial), Laura Ford (Leonia, NJ/Leonia), and Gisselle Vigil (Jersey City, NJ/Dickinson) collected their first career hits. Herrick, Ford, Vigil, Denise Lopez (Newark, NJ/North 13th Street Techt), and Ariana Moore (Linden, NJ/Linden) all scored their first career runs.

 
UP NEXT:
The Gothic Knights tackle day two of the Gene Cusic Collegiate Classic, as they face Rockford University (0-4) and SUNY Canton (0-0) at 1:00 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 10 with the action shifting to Naples, Fla.
 
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