GENESEO, N.Y. – SUNY Geneseo scored runs in the sixth inning of each game to sweep a softball doubleheader from the University of Rochester on Wednesday afternoon. The Knights won the opener, 8-3, and took the second game, 1-0.
 
Rochester is 16-16 overall heading into the Liberty League weekend. On Saturday, UR will play at Union College. On Sunday, the Yellowjackets will host RIT in a Senior Day doubleheader that begins at 1 pm. Geneseo improved to 27-7 overall. The Knights are among others receiving votes in the current Division III poll.
 
This was just the second doubleheader between the rivals in the past six years. Rainouts necessitating conference makeups for both sides have usually cancelled the games for that particular year.  
 
Game One -  Geneseo 8, Rochester 3:
The Yellowjackets jumped ahead 1-0 in the first, then scored twice in the third to tie the game at 3-3. Geneseo put runners in scoring position in the third (two-out double) and the fourth (first and second with two down) but Elizabeth Bourne kept turning them away.
 
In the bottom of the sixth, Geneseo scored five runs on a bases-loaded walk, a single followed by an error, and another two-out double.
 
Bourne pitched 4.2 innings – the first four, then the final two-thirds of the sixth. She allowed eight hits, four earned runs, walked two, and fanned two. Addy Szczerba took the loss. In 1.1 innings, she gave up three hits and one walk plus four earned runs.
 
Rochester had eight hits. Alexis Pope was 3-4 with two runs scored. Alizah Ayon was 2-3 with a run scored, Harleigh Kaczegowicz was 2-4 with an RBI, and Jen Carson had one hit and one RBI.
 
In the first with one down, Pope, Ayon, and Kaczegowicz strung tother singles for a 1-0 lead. Geneseo scored three times in the second on four hits, Rochester evened it in the third. Pope, Ayon, and Kaczegowicz singled to load the bases. A passed ball scored one run and Carson's RBI single tied it at 3-3.
 
Game Two – Geneseo 1, Rochester 0:
The second game was a pitcher's duel between UR's Hannah Leahy and Geneseo's Jasmine Petrishin. Leahy worked around three hits and four walks. She struck out three and stranded seven baserunners. Petrishin pitched a three-hit, three-walk shutout with three strikeouts. She stranded five runners.
 
Kaczegowicz doubled to start the game and was bunted to third. Ayon flied out to short right. Petrishin walked Gianna Melillo on four pitches, then induced a groundout by Jessica Conforti.
 
Geneseo put two aboard in each of the first two innings, but Leahy was equal to the task. With two on to start the second, she recorded three straight outs: a fly to right, a comebacker which resulted in a force play at third base, and a called third strike.
 
In the Knight sixth, a single and an HBP put two on with one down. Leahy fanned a pinch-hitter for the second out. Two wild pitches brought home the game's only run. She ended the inning with a groundout with two on base.
 
Carson hit a one-out single in the UR seventh. Petrishin shook off a dropped foul ball that extended an at-bat. She earned her third strikeout, then got a foul pop to end the game.