Tartans Open Series in New York with 8-3 Win

(STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.) - The Carnegie Mellon University softball team pounded out 12 hits including a two-run home run by senior Audrey Pederson (Bedford, N.H. / Bedford) in a series-opening 8-3 win against New York University on Friday, April 1 at the College of Staten Island. The Tartans are now 12-8 for the year and 3-2 in the University Athletic Association (UAA).

The Violets took a 2-0 lead in the second inning before the Tartans answered with three runs in the top of the third. Two of those runs came off the bat of Pederson who homered to right center for her second long ball of the season to make it 3-2.

Senior Piper Johnson (Riverside, Calif. / Martin Luther King) had two runs batted in for the game with one coming off a double in the fourth inning that plated freshman Maya Goodwin (Camden, N.J. / Leap Academy) who pinch ran for junior Izzy Bermudez (Austin, Texas / Dripping Springs) who walked to lead off the inning. Johnson later scored when sophomore Erika Heffernen (Moorestown, N.J. / Moorestown) put the ball in play to the shortstop who misplayed it allowing Johnson to score from third. Then with two outs in the fifth inning, Johnson singled to right center for her second RBI, as Pederson scored from second after reaching on a single and advancing on a single by junior Emily Finger (Aurora, Ill. / Metea Valley).

The Violets tacked on a run in the fifth inning to make it 6-3 and chase senior Gwen Delacruz (Laguna Nigel, Calif. / Aliso Niguel) who entered in the middle of the second inning for sophomore Amanda Smith (New Cumberland, Pa. / Trinity).

Smith returned in the fifth with no outs and runners at second and third. She sandwiched a fly out to right field between two strikeouts to end the inning still ahead by three runs.

The Tartans added two runs in the top of the sixth inning and Smith retired six of the next seven batters to close the game for the Cardinal and Gray.

Delacruz earned the win, her second of the season, by pitching 3.0 innings with one run against while giving up six hits.

The Tartans and Violets continue the four-game series on Saturday with a doubleheader starting at 3:00 p.m.