BETHLEHEM, Pa. --- Junior first baseman Jenn Dalcikas was 4-for-5 with five RBIs and a home run in each game to help power the Moravian College softball team to a sweep of Drew University, 7-2 and 8-0 in six innings, in Landmark Conference action Thursday afternoon at Blue & Grey Field.
The Greyhounds have now won five straight to improve to 11-5 on the year, and the squad evened its Landmark record at 2-2 with complete game pitching performances by junior Lizzie Mack and senior Elizabeth Tillou.
"I was happy about our pitching today, more than anything with two complete games," stated Head Coach John Byrne. "We hit well on Tuesday, and the key was to carry it through to today. Pitching was really what we needed to improve, and I was happy with the performances.
Mack moved to 2-0 on the year with her first complete game of the season, allowing two runs, one earned, on six hits and three walks in the opener, and Mack also struck out six. Tillou tossed a four-hit shutout in the second game, her first shutout of the season, and she recorded a pair of strikeouts while moving to 4-2 in the circle.
"When you throw the ball over the plate and don't walk anybody, it is a different game," Byrne said. "Lizzie and Liz were both around the plate all day and got people out when they needed too. We're going to score some runs, so these are the type of pitching performances we need."
In the opener, it didn't take long for the Greyhounds to put a crooked number on the scoreboard. Junior outfielder Dior George and Mack were both hit by pitches before Dalickas came to the plate with two outs. Dalickas took the first pitch she saw the other way and deposited it over the left field fence for a three-run homer, her fourth dinger of the season. Senior designated player/catcher Taylor Mihalik followed with a double and scored on an RBI single from senior outfielder Miranda Sergas as Moravian took a 4-0 lead in the first.
The Hounds extended that lead to 5-0 with a tally in the bottom half of the second when Mack helped herself with an RBI single to score senior second baseman Eavan Matz.
The Rangers made sure there wouldn't be a shutout in the first game when they tallied a run in the top of the third. However, Moravian would get the run right back in the bottom of the inning on a bases loaded RBI sacrifice fly by George.
The Greyhounds would make their lead 7-1 in the home half of the fifth inning when Sergas led off with a double and scored on an RBI single from Matz. Drew finished off the scoring with an unearned run in the top of the seventh in the opener.
Moravian had a 13-6 edge in hits in the first game with Matz going 3-for-3 and Sergas having a 3-for-4 performance. Dalickas and Mihalik each had two hits in the contest.
In the second game, the Greyhounds gave Tillou all the offense she would need in the bottom of the second. With one out, Dalickas hit a 2-0 pitch on a line over the right field fence as the ball never got more than 15 feet off the ground and went just over the six-foot outfield fence at Blue & Grey Field. The homer was Dalickas' fifth of the season and gives her 19 for her career, just one shy of becoming just the third player in school history with 20 career home runs.
"She's in the zone right now," Byrne said of Dalickas. "When she hits them, the ball is getting out of here in a hurry. Jenn's been hitting the ball and driving in runs, and that is what need her to do."
Moravian doubled the score in the third inning when senior third baseman Rachel DeLucia ripped the first pitch of the inning over the left field fence for her first homer of the spring.
The Greyhounds added another three runs in the bottom of the fourth to make the lead 5-0. Tillou drove in the first run with a bases loaded sacrifice fly before DeLucia added a two-RBI double.
Moravian scored twice in the fifth on RBI singles from Mack and Dalickas, and the Greyhounds scored the final run of the afternoon when Matz scampered home and slid under a tag on a wild pitch as the Hounds went ahead by eight runs for the NCAA run rule.
The Greyhounds had a 9-4 advantage in hits in the second game with Dalickas and DeLucia each gathering two hits.
Moravian is slated to return to action on Saturday, April 5 when the squad hosts Hunter (N.Y.) College in a non-conference twin bill beginning at 12:00 p.m. at Blue & Grey Field.
