Youngstown, Ohio – The
Robert Morris University softball team was swept in a doubleheader, 8-0 and 12-3, at Youngstown State Wednesday afternoon at YSU Softball Field. The games were originally slated to be played at North Athletic Complex but had to be moved due to soft field conditions.
Olivia Lorusso, who is the reigning Northeast Conference Player of the Week, hit her third home run in the last four games highlighting a 3-of-5 day for the junior third baseman. She also had a double and drove in two runs.
Taylor Bartlow went 2-for-4 on the day with hits in both games.
In game one, the Penguins (13-17) took advantage of five RMU (6-21) errors en route to an 8-0 five-inning victory. Brittany Moffatt singled in a run and would later score on a groundout by Sarah Dowd to put the hosts on top after one inning. The Penguins tacked on another score in the third inning on Maddi Lusk's single.
Youngstown State broke the game open in the fifth frame, scoring five runs on three hits and a pair of miscues. The big blow came off the bat Lusk who laced a two-run single to center field.
Bartlow and
Briana Bunner accounted for the lone RMU hits. Lusk earned the win for YSU allowing just two hits and striking out seven in five innings.
Kaitlin Ellzy took the loss for RMU.
Game two got off to a more promising start as Lorusso, who went 3-of-3 in the game with two RBI, sent an 0-1 pitch over the center field fence to record her sixth homer of the season in the first inning. The Penguins quickly equalized on a Cali Mikovich bomb in the bottom of the frame.
The Penguins went on to score in every inning en route to a 12-3 five-inning victory. They pushed across two runs in both the second and third innings before the floodgates opened in a seven-run fourth inning. Stevie Taylor did the majority of the damage when she launched a grand slam over the center field fence. Taylor finished the game with five runs batted in.
Robert Morris scored a single run in the third when Barltow and Lorusso started the frame with back-to-back doubles, Lorusso's shot to left center plating Bartlow. A bases loaded groundout by
Natalie Higgins allowed Bartlow to score again in the fifth inning.
The Colonials begin NEC play Saturday, April 1, when they travel to Smithfield, R.I., and a doubleheader date with the Bryant Bulldogs.
