UTICA, NY - The Utica University softball team shook off a game one loss to the visiting Russell Sage College Gators to salvage a series split. Sage took game one in extra innings, 3-2, before the Pioneers took game two in five innings, 9-1. 
 
With the game two victory, Utica clinched an Empire 8 Conference Tournament berth for the first time since the 2021 season. 
 
Game 1: Sage 3, Utica 2 (8 Inn.)
Jordyn Conte (Newport, NY/West Canada Valley High School) tossed a complete game with just one earned run allowed over her eight innings. The Gators connected for 10 hits off of the graduate student and worked one walk. Conte also stuck out a pair of batters. 
 
The freshman trio of Rachel Little (Burbank, CA/John Burroughs), Frankie Luster (Granada Hills, CA/Granada Hills Charter) and Jennifer Rodriguez (Sylmar, CA/John F. Kennedy) led Utica with three hits each. Emily Joss (South Glens Falls, NY/South Glens Falls) and Maddie Zulager (Moorpark, CA/Moorpark) had one apiece. Joss and Abigail Sacks (Colonie, NY/Colonie) drove in the Pioneers' two runs. 
 
Sage applied pressure early in the contest with the bases loaded and one out. Despite this, Conte worked out of the situation with just one unearned run allowed. 
 
The Pioneer bats came alive in the bottom of the 4th inning with the Gators still up 1-0. Jennifer Rodriguez (Sylmar, CA/John F. Kennedy) led off the inning with a single while Taylor Kraft (Loudonville, NY/Shaker) reached on a throwing error on a sacrifice bunt attempt. Two batters later, Sacks drove in Rodriguez on a sacrifice fly to even the score. 
 
After Conte retired the Sage side in order in the top half of the 5th, Utica scored one to take its first lead of the game. Little led off the frame with a triple before the next batter, Joss, singled one up the middle for a 2-1 lead. 
 
However, the Gators responded with an unearned run in the top of the 6th that tied the game back up at 2-2 and eventually sent the game into extra innings. While in the spare inning, Sage took advantage and manufactured its first earned run of the contest to lead 3-2 with Utica due up with the game on the line. Down to their final three outs, the Pioneers went down in order to grant the Gators the game one win. 
 
Game 2: Utica 9, Sage 1 (5 Inn.)
Kylie Murray (Eastchester, NY/Eastchester) was stout in the circle for the Pioneers en route to her eighth win of the year. The junior went all five innings allowing one unearned run on five hits and three walks with two strikeouts. 
 
Just as in game one, Rachel Little (Burbank, CA/John Burroughs), Frankie Luster (Granada Hills, CA/Granada Hills Charter) and Jennifer Rodriguez (Sylmar, CA/John F. Kennedy) had two hits each while Brooke Beleza (Amherstview, Ontario/Jefferson Community College) joined the party with two hits as well. Emily Joss (South Glens Falls, NY/South Glens Falls), Taylor Kraft (Loudonville, NY/Shaker) and Alyssa Barbato (Rhinebeck, NY/Rhinebeck) all had one as well while Maddie Zulager's (Moorpark, CA/Moorpark) lone hit served as the difference maker with a 4th inning grand slam. 
 
Murray was rewarded for her two scoreless innings come the Utica half of the 2nd as Beleza drove in Rodriguez on an two-out infield single for a 1-0 lead. Rodriguez drove in a run on an RBI single to center in the following inning to make it 2-0 entering the 4th. 
 
The junior Murray induced three groundnuts in the top of the 4th while the Pioneer bats exploded for seven runs in the bottom half. A leadoff single off the bat of Little led to a Beleza RBI double in which she came around herself to score on a throwing error to third base by the Sage shortstop. Five batters later, Zulager stepped up with the bases loaded and took a 2-2 pitch the opposite way over the left field fence for a grand slam and decisive 8-0 lead. 
 
Utica added another run on a Little RBI single to lead 9-0 and needed three outs in the top of the 5th to end the game. 
 
Sage refused to go down quietly down to its final three outs. The Gators scored one run just two batters into the 5th to bring the game within eight runs, needing one more to extend the game into the bottom of the 5th. However, Murray worked around the frame with runners on base and escaped without any further damage to end the game via run rule. 
 
Utica (19-11, 8-4 Empire 8) will make the short trip to Hamilton College on Sunday for a non-conference doubleheader starting at noon.