UTICA, NY - The Utica University softball team split its doubleheader with the Keuka College Wolves from Greenman Field on Thursday evening. The Wolves fended off the Pioneers for a 9-6 win in game one before the Utica offense erupted for 11 runs in its 11-1 game two win in six innings. 
 
Game 1: Keuka 9, Utica 6
Emily Joss (South Glens Falls, NY/South Glens Falls) put together her third consecutive multi-hit performance with a 2-for-3 outing in game one. Joss also scored three runs and walked once while hitting one double. Jennifer Rodriguez (Sylmar, CA/John F. Kennedy) went 2-for-3 as well with a double, three RBIs and a run. Alyssa Barbato (Rhinebeck, NY/Rhinebeck) (1-3) connected for her first career home run while Maddie Zulager (Moorpark, CA/Moorpark) (1-4, RBI), Rachel Little (Burbank, CA/John Burroughs) (1-3) and Amanda Chavarria (Westbury, NY/W.T. Clarke) (1-4) rounded out the hits. 
 
Lucia Gargiulo (Massapequa, NY/Massapequa) was credited with her first loss of the year after going one-plus innings allowing four runs on three walks and two hits. Kelly Thornton (Stanhope, NJ/Lenape Valley Regional) tossed four innings in relief allowing two runs (one earned) on six hits and four walks while striking out four. Jordyn Conte (Newport, NY/West Canada Valley High School) went one frame and let in three unearned runs on two hits and two walks while striking out three. 
 
Rodriguez got the Pioneers going in the bottom of the 1st with a sacrifice fly to go into the 2nd with a one-run edge. The Keuka 2nd inning made the difference in the game as the visitors came around to score five runs. 
 
The Wolves loaded the bases with no outs before scoring their first run on a walk. Thornton came on in relief and induced an infield fly for the first out of the frame. However, the next four at-bats led to runs on a walk, two infield singles, and a sacrifice foul out to left field. Utica entered its half of the 2nd trailing 5-1. 
 
The team eventually got one back in the bottom of the 3rd but the Wolves answered back with one in the top of the 4th to make it a 6-2 game. Utica made up significant ground in the bottom of the 5th with a three-run inning with a two-RBI Rodriguez double and a Zulager infield single that scored a hustling Rodriguez from second base. 
 
Keuka and Utica traded runs in the 6th inning with the Pioneers' lone run coming on the first career long ball off the bat of Barbato that made it 7-6. The Wolves added three insurance runs in the top of the 7th to lead 9-6. Rodriguez came through for a one-out base hit but that was all for the Pioneers in the bottom half as Keuka handed Utica its first home loss of the year. 
 
Game 2: Utica 11, Keuka 1 (6 Inn.)
The Pioneers' offense responded from its game one loss with an 11 run showing in game two off of 14 hits and one walk. 
 
Emily Joss (South Glens Falls, NY/South Glens Falls) made it her fourth straight multi-hit game as the graduate student went 2-for-4 with her first home run of the season. Lauren Paul (Guilderland, NY/Guilderland) delivered the game-ending grand slam in the bottom of the 6th as part of a 2-for-3 performance. Jennifer Rodriguez (Sylmar, CA/John F. Kennedy) went a perfect 3-for-3 with a double and a run scored. Maddie Zulager (Moorpark, CA/Moorpark) also totaled two hits in three trips to the dish with a double and a run. 
 
Kylie Murray (Eastchester, NY/Eastchester) went all six innings en route to her seventh win of her junior campaign. She gave up just the one run on a solo home run along with three other hits, two walks and five strikeouts. 
 
Murray dealt over the first three-plus innings, retiring each of the first 10 batters of the game before Olivia Flynn drove a towering fly ball over the center field fence for what would be Keuka's only run of the contest. 
 
In the meantime, the Pioneers built a 3-0 lead between the 2nd and 3rd innings. Erica Sanford (Boonville, NY/Adirondack) got things going with a two-out RBI double in the 2nd before coming in to score on a Joss RBI single. Then in the 3rd, Alyssa Barbato (Rhinebeck, NY/Rhinebeck) brought home Zulager on a single to left field. 
 
Following the Wolves' solo shot in the top of the 4th, Joss returned the favor with one of her own over the left-center field fence to make it 4-1. 
 
Utica added on two more in the bottom of the 5th as Brooke Beleza (Amherstview, Ontario/Jefferson Community College) delivered a pinch-hit, two-RBI single to open the gap to 7-1. 
 
Murray hung up another zero-spot in the top of the 6th inning after striking out two of the four batters she faced. 
 
Needing two runs to end the game in the bottom of the 6th via run rule, Frankie Luster (Granada Hills, CA/Granada Hills Charter) (single), Courtney Robinson (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro) (walk) and Rodriguez reached base consecutively to load them up with no outs. On the first pitch she saw, Paul sent the ball into the night sky for the walk-off grand slam and game two win. 
 
Utica (18-10, 7-3 Empire 8) will remain home on Saturday to host Russell Sage College for a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m. The team will also honor its graduating players at the conclusion of the second game.