UNION, N.J. (April 13, 2025) – The Kean University softball team collected 18 hits and 18 runs as it swept a New Jersey Athletic Conference doubleheader against Rutgers University-Camden here Sunday. The doubleheader was a makeup twinbill that was rained out on Saturday.
 
The Cougars won the opening game, 10-5, before capturing an 8-0 victory in the nightcap, which was shortened to five innings by the eight-run mercy rule.
 
Rutgers-Camden falls to 4-23 overall and 2-8 in the conference. Kean improves to 17-15 overall and 7-3 in the NJAC.
 
The Scarlet Raptors return to action on Tuesday with a 3 p.m. NJAC doubleheader at Stockton University.
   
After Kean scored a run in the bottom of the first inning, Rutgers-Camden scored two in the top of the second inning to take its only lead of the game. A walk to senior first baseman Luci Hutchinson and a single by freshman center fielder Ryleigh Lender opened the inning. After Hutchinson was thrown out at the plate on a fielder's choice, sophomore designated player Devyn Jordan singled home the tying run. One out later, senior left fielder Emily Dubiago added an RBI single to give the Raptors a 2-1 lead.
 
Kean bounced back with three walks, two singles and a hit batsman in the bottom of the second inning, scoring three times to take the lead for good. Rutgers-Camden scored a run in the top of the third on an RBI single by senior catcher Kendall Lafferty, but the Cougars' senior catcher Andee Perseponko countered with a two-run double in the bottom of the frame.
 
Rutgers-Camden cut the gap to 6-5 with two runs in the top of the fourth on Hutchinson's two-run double, but the Cougars put the game away with four unearned runs in the bottom of the fifth.
 
Sophomore Samantha Raymond (2-0) picked up the win by hurling five innings of six-hit, two-run relief work for Kean. Scarlet Raptors sophomore Sammie Friel (1-10) 5.2 innings, allowing 10 runs (six earned) in the loss.
 
Hutchinson, Dubiago and sophomore right fielder Kali Baker had two hits apiece for the Scarlet Raptors. Junior right fielder Brianna Sciulli went 4-for-5 with four runs scored at the top of the Kean lineup, while cleanup hitter Maya Thompson, a junior first baseman, added three hits, including two doubles, and two RBIs.
   
Kean senior pitcher Olivia Quercia (4-2) threw a two-hit shutout as the Cougars won in five innings by the eight-run rule. Quercia allowed only a third-inning single to Dubiago and a third-inning walk and a fifth-inning single to Jordan.
 
Kean, meanwhile, collected seven hits and three walks against sophomores Anna Milillo (0-4) and Molly Skelly. Sciulli went 3-for-3 with three runs scored for the Cougars, who ended the game with one out in the bottom of the fifth, plating their eighth tally with an unearned run.
 
Dubiago went 3-for-6 in the doubleheader, raising her career hit total to 95, while Hutchinson's 2-for-5 day raised her career hits to 94. Jordan and Baker also went 2-for-5 in the doubleheader.