CLERMONT, FL – Rochester's first two games of the 2015 softball season went about as expected when it is the first opportunity to play outdoors after sessions of indoor training in the winter.
 
On Saturday, the Yellowjackets won a 12-6 slugfest over Bethany College of West Virginia. They followed that with a 4-0 loss to Salve Regina College of Newport, Rhode Island. Rochester is 1-1 with one more game in Clermont before the University Athletic Association tournament begins on Tuesday.
 
Sophomore Eleni Wechsler picked up the decision in each game. She relieved in the fourth inning of the Bethany game, worked out of a jam, and was then the beneficiary of Rochester's four-run fifth inning that put the Yellowjackets ahead to stay. She threw 2.2 innings in relief, allowing two hits, one walk, and striking out five.
 
In the game vs. Salve Regina, she lost a pitching duel to Salve's Nicole Parry. Wechsler threw 6.2 innings, allowing nine hits – two of them were home runs (which provided all the runs) – did not walk a batter, and struck out seven. Parry threw a three-hitter for Salve (2-0) with three strikeouts and no walks. It was the second win of the day for Salve, which pounded 13 runs in a 13-3 triumph over Becker (Mass.) College.
 
The hitter of the game in the opener for Rochester was senior Brittany Grage. She was 5-5 with two home runs – a two-run blast and a solo shot – and four RBIs. Freshman Gabi Alatorre had two RBIs as did sophomore Tiffany White. Kayla Kibling, Lauren Muni, and Alyssa Murillo each had single RBIs. Muni was 3-4. Mackenzie Cronin, Grage, Wechsler, Muni, and Murillo each scored two runs.
 
Rochester scored two runs apiece in each of the first three innings to jump out to a 6-2 lead over Bethany. Muni singled in a first inning run and Cronin scored on a passed ball. In the second, White was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. Later in the inning, Alatorre drove in a run with an RBI groundout.
 
Grage's first home run –the two-run shot to center, brought home Wechsler for a 6-1 lead after two and a half. Defensive misplays allowed Bethany to tie the score in the bottom of the fourth with four unearned runs. After the first two scored, Wechsler relieved. She gave up a game-tying two-run single before getting a strikeout to end the inning.
 
Rochester's offense responded in the fifth. Murillo's single scored Muni. With the bases loaded, Kibling reached on a fielder's choice that scored Wechsler. White's RBI groundout brought home pinch-runner Jocelyn Blackshear and Alatorre singled home Murillo for the 10-6 lead.
 
Grage homered in the sixth and hit an RBI single in the seventh to complete the scoring. Wechsler finished it with two strikeouts in the sixth and one in the seventh.
 
The offense couldn't get anything going against Parry in game two. She set down the Yellowjackets in order four times and retired the final 11 hitters. Salve Regina scored all the runs it needed in the third. Nikcole Bukovsky doubled and moved to third on a bunt single by Melissa Figueiredo. After a strikeout, Kara O'Riley hit a three-run HR to center field. Genevieve Benoit made it 4-0 with a solo blast in the seventh.