EWING, N.J. — The New Jersey City University softball team competed against The College of New Jersey on Saturday, April 9, in a pair of New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) games on the road. Originally scheduled to take place at the Thomas M. Gerrity Complex in Jersey City, N.J., the games were moved down to South Jersey due to weather conditions. The Gothic Knights fought hard in both halves of the doubleheader, but unfortunately dropped the first, 9-0, and the second, 12-1.
Game 1: TCNJ 9, NJCU 0 (5 innings)
NJCU (9-14, 1-5 NJAC) saw sophomore
Sidnie Dabbadie (Burbank, Calif./John Burroughs) take to the pitching cirlce in this one, and she went 4.1 innings with five strikeouts before classmate
Sam Miller (Newburgh, N.Y./Newburgh Free Academy) relieved her in the top of the fifth to get the final two outs, including a strikeout. TCNJ (17-4, 5-1 NJAC) controlled this one from start to finish. The Lions never piled on in one single inning, but scored in all five to end it at 9-0 through five innings.
Jersey City, who served as the home team in both games despite being in Ewing, did manage a hit and a walk in this one. The sisters Villanueva produced for the Gothic Knights, both in the bottom of the second. Sophomore
Mariah Villanueva (Jersey City, N.J./McNair Academic) drew a walk to get NJCU's first baserunner of the day with two outs, and her sister, freshman
Mya Villanueva (Jersey City, N.J./McNair Academic) singled through the left side in the following at-bat to get something going before a ground out ended the inning.
Game 2: TCNJ 12, NJCU 1
Sophomore
Emily Tunney (Mays Landing, N.J./Oak Crest) got the nod in this one, but she was chased in the second before Miller returned to the circle to finish off the final 5.1 innings. Both allowed six earned in the loss. Each pitcher had a tough inning, allowing four runs in the first and seventh, but in the other five innings, the Gothic Knight hurlers managed to mostly keep a lid on the Lions' potent offense, shutting them out in two and allowing just one run each in two others.
The Green and Gold scored their first run of the afternoon in the bottom of the fifth to keep the game going — it eventually went the full seven — to make it 8-1. Mya V. led off with a single to left and made it over to second thanks to an error there; she then advanced to third on a wild pitch. Tunney came up next and smacked a RBI single to right to plate her teammate.
Up Next:
Looking to halt their recent losing skid, the Gothic Knights take on an evenly-matched William Paterson University squad back home at the Gerrity on Tuesday, April 12, for a pair of NJAC match-ups. First pitch in game one is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. as NJCU looks for its first win over the Pioneers since splitting a doubleheader back on April 29, 2017 — which was previously the most recent conference victory before the squad split with Rutgers-Camden back on Saturday, April 2, 2022.
