ROCKFORD, Ill. -- The Rockford University softball team faced off against the Benedictine University Eagles on Sunday afternoon, falling short dropping both games, 7-4 and 12-2.
The Regents will return to action on Wednesday, April 29, for their final doubleheader of the regular season on the road against Elmhurst University. First pitch is set for 3 p.m. CDT.
Game One: Benedictine 7, Rockford 4
Liz Mois led the way at the plate, going 3-for-4 with a double.
Payton Willenkamp was 2-for-4 with two singles and two RBIs.
Mia Cosentino was also 2-for-4.
Kendall Knoll started for the second day in a row. She gave up nine hits and five earned runs in just under five innings of action.
Lorelei Monk and
Neelah Vandeberg combined to close out the game. Vandeberg struck out one in a three up, three down inning.
The Eagles drew first blood. They scored a run in the first with help from a pair of Regents' errors to go up, 1-0.
Benedictine drove in another run in the second to take a 2-0 lead.
The Regents tied the game later in the inning. After a leadoff walk,
Sophia Hulsey scored on a wild pitch. Cosentino came home on a
Kieran Madigan ground out to even up the score, 2-2.
Neither team crossed the plate in the third or fourth innings. Benedictine broke the tie with a big fifth inning scoring four runs to pull ahead. 6-2.
Another run in the sixth stretched the lead to five. Rockford's offense went dormant in the middle innings and were held scoreless until the seventh.
That's when the Regents started a mini rally.
Brooklyn Lee singled, Mois doubled, and Willenkamp brought them both in with a base hit up the middle to make it a 7-4 ballgame.
The rally stopped there. Benedictine got the outs needed to hold on for a win in game one.
Game Two: Benedictine 12, Rockford 2
Tayiah Scanlan went 1-for-4 with an RBI triple. Mois continued to produce, going 1-for-2 with an RBI and two stolen bases.
Alexis Schuldt was also 1-for-2, with a walk and a stolen base.
Claire Shanahan was given the ball in the second game. She gave up eight runs off eight hits in four-and-a-third innings. Knoll came back to the circle for the second game in a row, giving up a run of her own. Vandeberg capped it off with a strikeout in her inning of action.
Benedictine kicked off the scoring again in this one pushing two unearned runs across the plate, getting some help from the Regents' defense.
Up 2-0, Haley Barnes hit a two-run homer to left field to extend the BenU lead to four.
Rockford finally answered in the bottom of the third. After a leadoff single by Schuldt, Scanlan hammered a triple into the gap in right center to give RU its first run. Mois' sac fly made it 4-2.
The Eagles grabbed another run in the fourth to go up three. They piled on in the fifth, scoring three runs on four hits to take an 8-2 lead.
The Regents put up goose eggs in the fourth, fifth, and sixth. Benedictine gave themselves a ten-run cushion, scoring three more runs in the top of the seventh.
There would be no rally in this game. The Regents were unable to score in the bottom of the seventh, falling 12-2.
