Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 HACKETTSTOWN, N.J. (NJCUGothicKnights.com) | After falling just short in a comeback in game one, the New Jersey City University softball team bounced back with a dominant 13-4 win over Centenary University to earn a split in a non-conference matchup on April 4 at Legion Field. The 13 runs scored by the Gothic Knights were a season high, as they collected 13 hits and took advantage of seven Cyclone errors to post the double-digit figure.
 
Senior right-handed pitcher Christina Mezey (Jersey City, NJ/Saint Dominic Academy), who pitched both ends of the doubleheader, was unstoppable at the plate, collecting five hits in her six at bats for the day, driving in six runs in the process and coming around to score twice. She also drew three walks, reaching base an incredible nine times in two games.
 
Five other Knights had multi-hit performances in either game one or game two: senior third baseman/shortstop Hannah Gavin (Bordentown, NJ/Bordentown) (with four runs and an RBI), sophomore shortstop/third baseman  Dulce Almonte (Jersey City, NJ/Snyder via County Prep) (with four runs) and rookie center fielder Laura Ford (Leonia, NJ/Leonia) (with two runs and an RBI).
 
Mezey pitched a combined 12.0 innings, allowing just five earned runs, striking out six and walking only two.
 
GAME 1: Centenary 5, NJCU 3
In the first game of the day, the Knights fell behind early with Centenary (8-18) taking a quick 3-0 lead over NJCU (4-18) by the end of the second inning.
 
NJCU had five hits—Mezey batted 2-for-2 with two walks and two RBIs and freshman right fielder Gisselle Vigil (Jersey City, NJ/Dickinson) batting 2-for-3 with one RBI.
 
The Knights were able to tie things up with a run in the fourth and a pair in the fifth, however, with another Vigil single with two outs—a specialty of hers this season—cutting the lead to 3-1 in the fourth. Then, in the fifth, Almonte worked a one-out walk, Gavin knocked a double into left center, and Mezey drove them both in to tie the game, 3-3.
 
The Cyclones made their move in the bottom half of the sixth, though, with three straight hits coming with two outs, the third of which—a two-out double from Courtney Deloughery (Dumont, N.J.) gave the Cyclones the lead. It was a lead they held on to, despite NJCU getting a pair of runners on in the seventh, giving Centenary and Sandra Cosenzo (Florence, N.J.)—who came on in the sixth and pitched two shutout innings—the win.
 
Deloughery, the second baseman, batting 2-for-4 with three RBIs. Sophomore shortstop/catcher Meghan Hughes was 2-for-4 (one RBI),   junior designated player/pitcher Jessica Hewitt (Waretown, N.J.) was 2-for-2, and Justine Stefura (Port Reading, N.J.) batted 2-for-3.
 
GAME 2: NJCU 13, Centenary 4 (6 innings)
The Knights didn't mess around at all in the second half of the doubleheader, getting right to it with four runs in the top of the first inning. NJCU took advantage of three players reaching via errors in the frame, with a single from Hannah Gavin (Bordentown, NJ/Bordentown) being the only hit.
 
The Knights plated four in the inning, however, and with the one run they got in the second off a Mezey single, all the rest of their runs would be insurance, as Mezey allowed the Cyclones only four runs for the game.
 
The top four hitters in the lineup did most of the damage. Mezey, in the cleanup spot, batted 3-for-4 with four RBIs and two runs, Gavin and Almonte each batted 2-for-4 with three runs scored and Ford batted 2-for-5 with two runs out of the leadoff spot. Freshman right fielder Maia Tejeda (Newark, NJ/Eastside) was 2-for-5. For Tejada, it was her first multi-hit game and her first run and RBI of her NJCU career.
 
The Knights tacked on plenty of insurance runs, just to be safe, scoring four in the fourth, one in the fifth, and three more in the sixth.
 
NJCU collected six hits in the fourth, with back-to-back doubles from their senior standouts Gavin and Mezey beginning the frame, and then singles from freshman first baseman Emma Herrick (Sayreville, NJ/Sayreville War Memorial), junior catcher Arianna Scrimo (Kearny, NJ/Kearny), Tejada, and Ford making the Cyclone pitchers life miserable in the fourth.
 
Yet another Mezey double in the sixth put the game to rest for good as the Knights won via the eight-run rule for the first time this year.
 
OF NOTE:

• Series: First meetings since March 26, 2007. With the split, the two teams remain even all-time, at 14-14-1.

 
UP NEXT:
NJCU goes back to conference play, traveling to Glassboro, N.J. to take on No. 14 Rowan University (16-6, 3-0 NJAC) in a doubleheader on Saturday, April 6. First pitch for game one will be 1:00 p.m.
 
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