Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

UNION, N.J. (April 26, 2018) – After a pair of cancellations and a site change to a neutral field, the Rutgers University-Camden softball team finally had a chance to play Ramapo College in a New Jersey Athletic Conference doubleheader here Thursday.
 
As it turned out, hits and runs were as difficult to find as a dry field.
 
Ramapo swept Rutgers-Camden, 1-0 and 2-1 in eight innings, in a twinbill that saw only four runs and 17 hits between the two teams.
 
Ramapo improves to 20-10 overall and 9-5 in the NJAC, while Rutgers-Camden falls to 10-19 and 3-13.
 
The games, which were postponed from the original April 7 date due to Ramapo's field conditions, and were later postponed again due to the Roadrunners' wet field, were finally moved to Kean University in facilitate the NJAC schedule. NJAC regular-season play ends this weekend.
 
Rutgers-Camden closes its season with a 1 p.m. NJAC doubleheader at Kean University Saturday.
   
Scarlet Raptor junior Kendra Pfister (Dacula, GA/Dacula) matched shutout innings with Ramapo senior Katrina Buczkowski until the Roadrunners scored the game's lone run in the bottom of the seventh.
 
Senior center fielder Sisi Machinski opened the decisive inning with a single up the middle and freshman right fielder Carli Egan followed with a single to right, chasing Machinski to third. Sophomore first baseman Jackie Howarth ended the game with a double to left center, plating Machinski.
 
Pfister (5-11) finished with a seven-hitter, allowing only two walks and the one earned run while striking out two. She threw four-hit shutout ball through six full innings before allowing the three Ramapo hits to open the seventh.
 
Buczkowski, meanwhile, was nearly perfect, allowing only one hit and one walk in her shutout. She struck out six. She retired the first six batters until senior catcher Mackenzie Mason (Penns Grove, NJ/Penns Grove) reached on an outfield error to open the third inning. She had a no-hitter going until Mason, pictured above, hit a two-out double to right field in the fifth inning, which turned out to be the Raptors' lone hit. The only other Raptor to reach base was senior first baseman Mariah Hans (Barrington, NJ/Haddon Heights), who drew a one-out walk in the top of the seventh.
   
With the score knotted at 1-1 in the bottom of the eighth inning, the Roadrunners broke through for the victory, aided by the international tie-breaker rule in which a team starts with a runner at second base in extra innings. Ramapo's runner, catcher Shannon Cox, moved up on a wild pitch and scored the winning run on a single to center by winning pitcher Christina Brizek.
 
Brizek (8-2) and starter Erin Fitzsimmons held the Scarlet Raptors to five hits, with senior center fielder Gabrielle Castellini (Millville, NJ/Wildwood Catholic) going 3-for-3 with one walk and one run scored for the Raptors.
 
Pfister worked the first inning for Rutgers-Camden, allowing one run, before freshman Kennedy Whalen (Williamstown, NJ/Gateway Regional) worked the rest of the game. Whalen (4-8) allowed only two hits and the one unearned international tie-breaker run in her six-inning stint. She walked four and struck out one.
 
Howard had two of Ramapo's four hits off Rutgers-Camden pitching.
 
The Roadrunners' 1-0 lead held up until the sixth inning, when Brizek relieved Fitzsimmons and was victimized by an unearned run. Castellini opened the frame with a double. She advanced to third on a single by Hans and scored on a shortstop throwing error on the same play. Brizek finished the frame with three straight strikeouts.