NEW ROCHELLE, NY - The Iona University softball team split a doubleheader with Wagner on Tuesday afternoon at Donald E. Walsh Field.
Jamie Sheeran homered and notched the 100th hit of her career and
Kara Zazzaro tossed a complete-game shutout in a 3-0 win over the Seahawks in game one.
GAME ONE: IONA 3, WAGNER 0
Both starters worked around a base runner in the first frame to toss scoreless frames to open play on Tuesday afternoon. Sheeran singled with two away in the first inning, the 100th hit of her career, though she was stranded on base to end the first.
In Sheeran's next turn at bat, she homered to left center with two outs to open the scoring in the contest. The one run was all that Zazzaro needed, as she would go on to toss a complete-game shutout of the Seahawks. Iona increased the lead for Zazzaro in the bottom of the sixth on a wacky play. Haley Weaver bunted to sacrifice a runner, but beat the throw that proceeded to sail all the way to the right field fence, allowing Weaver and Hannah Werth to scamper all the way home without a play at the plate.
Despite a leadoff single to begin the seventh, Zazzaro never allowed the tying run to come to bat, retiring the next three batters to secure the win for the Maroon & Gold in game one against the Seahawks.
GAME TWO: WAGNER 4, IONA 0
The script was flipped in game two, seeing Wagner's Eve Harvey replicate Zazzaro's effort with a complete-game shutout of her own. Just as Iona did in the first game of the doubleheader, Wagner opened the scoring in the third inning.
The Seahawks manufactured the run after a leadoff single, a sacrifice bunt and a sharp single through the left side of the infield. After an error that put runners on first and second with one out, Samantha Rieb induced a 5-5-3 double play to keep the damage to one run in the third inning.
Harvey surrendered a hit in both the first and second innings, but after being handed a one-run lead, she would hold Iona hitless in both the third and fourth innings. Harvey worked around a two-out single in the fifth and a one-out walk in the sixth to keep the shutout alive. Wagner added three insurance runs in the seventh inning against reliever Alyssa DeJianne, enough of a cushion to see Harvey finish what she started and salvage a split in the mid-week, non-conference doubleheader in New Rochelle.
UP NEXT
Iona returns to conference action this weekend, traveling to Western New York to face Niagara (April 15) and Canisius (April 16) in a pair of doubleheaders.
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