GLASSBORO, N.J. (April 27, 2021) – The Rowan University softball team entered its doubleheader against Rutgers University-Camden here Tuesday with a 21-5 record, ranking 21st in the country and averaging 6.4 runs per game.
 
Scarlet Raptor senior ace Sarah Byrnes held the Profs to only one earned run over 14 innings, but the Rutgers-Camden bats couldn't generate any offense as Rowan posted a pair of 1-0 victories in New Jersey Athletic Conference play. The first game went eight innings.
 
The sweep lifts the NJAC-leading Profs to 23-5 overall and 17-1 in the conference. Rutgers-Camden, which has now lost three straight 1-0 games, falls to 6-12 overall and 6-10 in the NJAC.
 
Rutgers-Camden will close the regular season Saturday, hosting NJAC rival Rutgers-Newark at 2 p.m.
   
The opening game was a stellar pitching duel between Byrnes and Rowan senior Emily August. The Profs scored the lone run in the bottom of the eighth inning after pinch-runner Sam Marasheski started the inning at second base with the international tie-breaker rule. She was sacrificed to third and scored on a single by junior right fielder Mariah Wysocki.
 
Byrnes worked 7.1 innings, holding the nation's 21st-ranked team to only six hits and one unearned run. She struck out six and walked six, with two of those walks being intentional. Wysocki  and sophomore third baseman Breanna Bryant had two hits apiece for Rowan, the lone players in the game with multiple hits.
 
August (11-2) allowed five hits in her eight-inning shutout, striking out nine without walking a batter. Rutgers-Camden finished the game with 10 runners left on base, aided by four Rowan errors. The Raptors left five runners on base in the first three innings.
 
Rowan, which also left 10 on base, had the bases loaded with one out in the fifth inning when a fly ball to right field was turned into an inning-ending double play. Sophomore right fielder Jayden Hunter doubled a runner off first base to end the threat.
   
In another outstanding pitching performance, Byrnes scattered eight hits and two walks, while fanning three, in her second complete game of the day. The only run for the Profs came on a leadoff home run in the bottom of the fifth inning by freshman shortstop Peyton MacNair.
 
Freshman Cat Thomas (7-2) earned the win for Rowan, working 6.2 innings of five-hit ball, striking out two. The Raptors threatened in the seventh inning when sophomore second baseman Cate Petrucelli hit a one-out single and was sacrificed to second. After an error put runners at the corners, August relieved Thomas to get a game-ending strikeout.
 
Petrucelli collected two of the Scarlet Raptors' five hits.