Rowan softball continued their winning ways on Sunday, April 7, sweeping New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) opponent William Paterson in a doubleheader. With the wins, Rowan extended their winning streak to 15 games.
The Profs came out firing with a statement victory in game one with a 16-0 victory, before facing a stiffer challenge from the winless Pioneers in game two, who held Rowan to six runs in a 6-1 victory.
Rowan pitcher Rylee Lutz continued her season-long dominance on the mound with five shutout innings in game one. Coupled with an inning of mop-up duty in game two, Lutz has now allowed just one run in her last 35 innings pitched.
“I’m just mixing up all my pitches and keeping batters off balance right now,” Lutz said. “I’m making sure that I’m throwing first-pitch strikes so I can attack early.”
Lutz leads the NJAC in strikeouts with 84, tallying six more today during the doubleheader. Emily McCutcheon also dominated in game two, pitching six innings and striking out six while allowing just one run.
Payton MacNair was a big reason why the Profs were able to cruise in game one. Her double in the first inning of game one brought home two runners and made the score 3-0. Then in the second, MacNair hit her first triple of the game to score two more runners and increase the Profs’ lead to 6-0.
Just an inning later, she hit her second and conference-leading fifth triple of the season to score Cat Thomas home and stretch the lead 10-0. With a total of 5 RBI, MacNair set a single-game career-high.
Lutz certainly appreciated the help from her offense.
“It’s such a stress reliever just to know that even if we go down it doesn’t matter,” Lutz said. “My teammates are always going to back me up.”
Game two was more of a grind for Rowan. The Profs held just a two-run lead in the bottom of the sixth before the offense came alive, scoring three runners and growing the lead to 6-1. MacNair noticed a change in approach during the second game.
“I think we were being more aggressive, maybe not waiting for a good pitch to hit,” MacNair said. “We definitely picked it up at the end, swinging at better pitches.”
Head coach Kim Wilson was overall pleased with the performance of her squad during the doubleheader.
“I thought we got good pitching, defense, offense and we were able to get a lot of people into the game,” Wilson said. “It’s hard to get back up for a second game after you win by so much in the first game, but I think they played well today.”
With the two wins, the Profs improved their overall record to 21-5 and are tied at the top of the NJAC standings with a 6-0 record. Rowan will have a big test on Tuesday, when Stockton, who sports a 5-1 NJAC record comes into Glassboro for a doubleheader. Does MacNair and her teammates feel any pressure from the winning streak?
“I had no idea, that’s really good obviously so we want to keep that going,” MacNair said with a smile. “We’ve been successful not focusing on it, so we’ll just continue approaching it that way.”
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