UTICA, NY - The Utica College softball team saw no shortage of offense on Wednesday as they hosted local opponent SUNY Polytechnic Institute for a doubleheader at Greenman Field. The Pioneers broke open a slim two run lead with five runs in the seventh to win game one by a 10-3 score.  They then took advantage of fifteen hits in game two as they delivered a 15-5 win in five innings to finish the sweep.

The Pioneers are now 12-16 overall. The Pioneers have now won the last eighteen consecutive meetings against SUNY Poly, a streak that dates back to April of 2011. The Wildcats fell to 10-18. 

Jacqueline Aronin (Naugatuck, CT/Naugatuck High School) and Renee Deresh had career days for UC. Deresh rolled through Wildcat pitching at a 4-for-8 clip with a career-best five RBI. Jacqueline Aronin (Naugatuck, CT/Naugatuck High School) went 5-for-8 and had six RBI. Leadoff hitter Jaime Miller had a monstrous day at the plate, going 4-for-8 with four runs scored and two RBI. Sadie Evans (Clifton Park, NY/Shenendehowa) went 4-for-6 in the doubleheader with a run scored and an RBI. Madison Judge (Albany, NY/Colonie) tacked on four runs scored.

First baseman Bailey Wood finished 4-of-6 to pace the Wildcats at the dish.

Offensive production was rampant across the lineup for the Pioneers. Utica slashed out 25 runs on 32 hits in the doubleheader. Seventeen of a possible eighteen combined spots in the batting order between the two games had at least one hit, and the Pioneers had all but two spots produce a run in the double feature.

Pitcher Gabby Caccamo threw 3.2 innings of relief and allowed one run on three hits. Pioneer pitching issued just one walk the entire afternoon.

Game One: Utica 10, SUNY Poly 3
The Pioneers assumed a 4-0 lead in the first inning, and it was enough to carry the Pioneers towards the finish line as they overcame a brief comeback flurry to prevail by a convincing score in game one.

Nicole Rice (Williamsville, NY/Williamsville South), Sara Stransky (Miller Place, NY/Miller Place), and Deresh fueled UC out of the gate as each drove in runs as part of the team's strong opening inning. Rice doubled in the frame to bring home Miller. And Rice, Judge, and Kaitlyn Paul (Albany, NY/Guilderland) crossed the plate as well to give the Pioneers the early advantage.

Starting pitcher Alyssa Samborin (Schenectady, NY/Mohonasen) kept Poly off balance for much of her outing. She went five innings and allowed three runs on four hits while fanning four. Her efforts helped to preserve the early 4-0 lead going into the fifth inning, when the Wildcats finally broke through. Poly's Courtney Morton wiped away much of the lead with one swing as she drove in three runs with a bases-clearing triple to pull the Wildcats to within a run at 4-3.

While threatening to the Utica lead for a time, the opposing offensive outburst turned out to be merely a flash in the pan. Gabby Caccamo came on in relief to restore order with two innings of scoreless ball in which she allowed just one hit, and the Pioneers drove in a total of six runs in the last two innings as Utica pulled away to a 10-3 victory.

Miller led Utica by going 3-for-5 with a run scored and two RBI. Utica doubled three times in the game. The Wildcats were limited to just five hits.

Game 2 - Utica 15, SUNY Poly 5
Game 2 was quite the offensive display, and the Pioneers left very little to doubt while doing it. Utica plated the first nine runs of the game and went on to a 15-5 run rule win in the second game. 

The damage was done in large amounts for the Pioneer bats, especially when it came to anything off the bat of Jacqueline Aronin (Naugatuck, CT/Naugatuck High School). Aronin was 4-for-4 with two runs scored and five RBI. The five RBI in one game is the most since Sabrina Stransky (Miller Place, NY/Miller Place) had six against NYU during the team's 2018 spring trip. Utica went on to smash in fifteen runs on fifteen hits in the getaway game of the doubleheader. 

Jane Field (Waterford, NY/Catholic Central) got the ball to start in the circle and allowed four runs on eight hits in 3.1 innings of work to get the win. Caccamo closed out the remainder of the matchup before it was brought to a halt after the fifth inning. The tandem combined to strike out three.

Utica had seven runs in the fourth, and six more in the fifth to notch the runaway victory after leading just 2-0 early. Miller scored three runs in game two for UC.