READING, Penn. (April 8, 2019) – The team record fails to show the quality of play by the Rutgers University-Camden softball team in the last week.
 
Although the Scarlet Raptors' losing streak stretched to eight games here Monday in a doubleheader loss at Alvernia University, Rutgers-Camden has played tough ball against four teams that had a combined record of 79-26-1 through Monday. Three of the defeats have come by one run and two more contests were two-run games, including one of both decisions against the 14th-ranked team in the country, Moravian College, last week. All but two of those losses in the eight-game skid have come on the road.
 
Rutgers-Camden dropped its record to 6-12 Monday by losing at Alvernia, 5-1 and 2-0. The Golden Wolves improved to 20-9-1.
 
Rutgers-Camden returns to action Tuesday with a 3 p.m. New Jersey Athletic Conference twinbill at The College of New Jersey.
   
Raptor senior Kendra Pfister matched shutout innings with Alvernia junior Riley Shields until the bottom of the fourth inning, when the Golden Wolves scored three runs on a walk and three hits. The big blow of the inning was a two-run double by sophomore third baseman Sarah Reinert. She scored on a double by junior first baseman Sarah Bystrycki.
 
The Golden Wolves added two more runs in the fifth inning. With two outs, three straight singles loaded the bases and Reinert walked to force home a run. An infield error plated the second run of the frame.
 
Rutgers-Camden spoiled the shutout bid by Shields in the top of the seventh. With one out, sophomore Sarah Byrnes stroked a pinch-hit single. The Raptors added singles by sophomore catcher Alexis Davis and sophomore shortstop Nina Arroyo, with Arroyo's hit scoring Byrnes.
 
Alvernia collected 11 hits off Pfister, including two apiece by senior center fielder Morgan Psiuk and sophomore right fielder Nicole August. Pfister (2-4) walked five and struck out one. She allowed five runs, four of them earned.
 
Shields (9-4) scattered six singles and five walks, while allowing one earned run. She struck out two. Nobody on the Scarlet Raptors had multiple hits.
   
Junior pitcher Mackenzie Lafferty (0-1) made her first start at Rutgers-Camden an impressive one, allowing only one earned run, but the Scarlet Raptors were blanked on five hits by Alvernia freshman Kealey Smith (1-0).
 
Lafferty, a former All-Region and Pre-Season All-American pitcher with Rowan College at Gloucester County, allowed only six hits and one walk, while striking out three. She was tagged with an unearned run in the first inning on an error and a two-out RBI double by junior shortstop JoAnnah Lim. Alvernia added an insurance run in the sixth on a single by Lim, a double by Shields and a sacrifice fly by August.
 
Smith, meanwhile, hurled a five-hit shutout, also walking one and striking out three. Byrnes went 2-for-3 for the Raptors, finishing the day going 3-for-4 with one run scored in the two games.