The Saint Joseph's softball team made its Senior Day a memorable one as the Hawks blanked the Billikens, 8-0, in five innings on Sunday at the SJU Softball Field.
The Hawks (24-21, 12-8 Atlantic 10) jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first and never looked back. Molly Kapala drove home Amanda Kulp and Sarah Ostaszewski with a single, then came around herself to score on a fielding error by the Saint Louis third baseman on a slow roller up the line by Taryn Grober.
After a scoreless second, SJU blew the game open with a four-run third inning to make it 7-0. Caela Abadie drilled a two-run home run to push the lead to five, while a single by Kulp brought home Grober and Jordan Hinkle.
With the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the fifth, Ostaszewski came through with the final run as Carly Rybinski scored on a fielding error by the Saint Louis second baseman off a ball struck by Ostaszewski to give the Hawks the walk-off win.
While Saint Joseph's collected eight runs on 11 hits at the plate, senior Ashley Ventura dominated in the circle as she allowed just one hit in 5.0 innings of work and struck out two to improve to 13-14 on the season.
Prior to first pitch, SJU honored its senior class - Kulp, Ventura, Grober and Stacey Mayer - in a pregame ceremony.
The Hawks return to action on Wednesday when they host Drexel at 4 p.m.
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