NAPLES, Fla. (NJCUGothicKnights.com) | The New Jersey City University softball team fell 5-1 to Rockford University (1-4) and 5-3 to SUNY Canton (1-0) in a pair of evenly-matched ball games on Day Two of the Gene Cusic Collegiate Classic on March 10 at the North Collier Regional Park in Naples, Florida. The Knights were doomed by one big inning in each game, and their bats couldn't quite make up the difference as they faced a pair of tough aces in the circle.
 
Sophomore second baseman Dulce Almonte (Jersey City, NJ/Snyder via County Prep) led the Knights with five hits on the day, and senior right-handed pitcher Christina Mezey (Jersey City, NJ/Saint Dominic Academy) had a busy day, with over 200 pitches thrown in the two games combined, and all three RBI that NJCU had on the day.
 
Game 1: Rockford 5, NJCU 1
The opening game of the doubleheader began a little after 1:00 p.m., as the Knights were moved to the afternoon slot for the second day of their Florida trip, facing a school out of the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference and from Rockford, Illinois.
 
In the circle for the Knights, Mezey fell behind often due to a tight strike zone, but she showed strong self-motivation to grind away and keep the Regents off the board. The senior stranded three runners in the first before setting down Rockford in order in the second. However, the Regents number three hitter, Annaka Bartz (Rockton, Ill.) left the yard in the third, the opening run of the game, a blast over the center field fence.
 
On the other side of the diamond, freshman pitcher Rylee Klema (Mendota, Ill.) looked locked in early, stranding a pair in the first and escaping a bases-loaded, one-out situation with a double play in the third. It wasn't until the fifth inning that the Knights were able to break the seal, when Mezey drove in senior pinch-runner Amber O'Donnell (East Newark, NJ/Harrison) with an opposite field hit to help her own cause and tie the game at 1-1.
 
Things stayed even until the seventh. In the seventh inning, the tide swung towards Rockford, as Mezey went over the 150-pitch mark and started to labor in the circle. The first four hitters of the inning reached, as the Regents played station-to-station softball, collecting singles and walks to eventually push four runs across in the top half of the final frame. Sophomore shortstop Sammi Russell (Winnebago, Ill.) had the big hit—a two-run single. She was 2-for-4. Rockford had one more hit than NJCU (8-7).
 
Almonte picked up her fourth hit of the game in the bottom of the inning, but the Regents once again turned an important double play, giving the game its 5-1 final. She was 4-for-4 in the opening game.
 
Game 2: SUNY Canton 5, NJCU 3
In the second half of Sunday's doubleheader, the script was flipped. Both teams did the majority of their scoring early before trading zeros late in the game.
 
The Roos, who were playing their first game of the 2019 season, scored in their first inning of play, when freshman catcher Mackenzie Currie (Henrietta, NY) doubled home a run off sophomore righty Amber Hunter (Piscataway, NJ/Arts (Newark)).
 
The Knights had an immediate response, however. Almonte got things started with her fifth hit of the day, and junior catcher Arianna Scrimo (Kearny, NJ/Kearny) reached on a walk one batter later. Once again, it was Mezey who had the big hit, poking a double into the right-centerfield gap and driving in both ducks on the pond to put NJCU up 2-1.
 
This time it was the Roos, a Northern New York state school from the North Atlantic Conference (NAC) who had an answer, though, as they took advantage of a pair of NJCU misplays in the field to put up three runs on the Knights and force head coach Ashley Martinez to bring her ace, Mezey, back to the circle despite pitching a complete game in the day's opener. Mezey did well to shut down the danger and tossed a pair of shutout innings in the third and fourth to keep the Knights in the game.
 
Almonte once again got things going in the third, drawing a leadoff walk and eventually coming around to score when Emma Herrick (Sayreville, NJ/Sayreville War Memorial) smacked a ball between first and second that made it through the right fielder's wickets, allowing NJCU to cut the lead to one, 4-3.
 
The Roos got an insurance run in the fifth, the only run Mezey allowed in the second game, and a tough-luck one at that. With two outs, the senior ace got sophomore center fielder McKenzie Mattison (Parish, NY) to swing at strike three in the dirt, but the throw down to first got away, allowing the runner to score from second and bump the Canton lead back out to two at 5-3, a margin that would hold for the remainder of the game. Hunter re-entered the game for NJCU to pitch in the sixth and did very well to hold the Regents scoreless over the two frames.
 
The Knights got a runner into scoring position in both the sixth and seventh, but they couldn't capitalize on either opportunity, sending them home for the day with a pair of close losses.
 
OF NOTE:

• Series vs. Rockford: Rockford leads, 2-1
• Series from SUNY Canton: First meeting.
• First-year softball player, and senior    , Amber O'Donnell (East Newark, NJ/Harrison), scored the first run of her collegiate softball career.

 
UP NEXT:
The Gothic Knights play a third straight day of doubleheaders, taking on Western Connecticut State (3-1) at 11:00 a.m. and Lesley University (1-3) at 1:00 p.m.
 
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