PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Graduate student Tori Mueller (Clovis, Calif.) totaled three hits and knocked in the winning run of game two with a ninth-inning sacrifice fly to help the UMass Lowell softball team (8-9-1) sweep day one of the Rutgers Tournament.
 
Both of the River Hawks' victories on Friday were one-run games and won in comeback fashion to add to the excitement. The team first defeated Saint Peter's (12-4), 3-2, before forcing extra innings against Iona (4-12-1) and eventually taking the 4-3 decision in nine.
 
"We really rallied in both games as a team to get gritty and manufacture the runs we needed to win," said Head Coach Jen Starek.
 
Mueller was one of three River Hawks to record three hits on the day. She was joined by graduate student Mya Case (Syracuse, N.Y.), who went 3-for-4 with two runs and two RBI, and junior Morgan Fisher (Glassboro, N.J.), who hit .429 with two RBI of her own.
 
In the circle for UMass Lowell, senior Ryley White (Wareham, Mass.) earned the complete-game win against the Peacocks, allowing just three hits with 10 strikeouts, while freshman Giana LaCedra (Tyngsboro, Mass.) worked all nine innings against the Gaels, striking out five and giving up just four hits in that victory.
 
Case started off game one against St. Peter's with a first-inning single through the left side, but the Peacocks jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the third thanks to a home run by Jess Forte.
 
Fisher would respond with a shot to right center in the top of the fourth, knocking in Mueller, who had led off the inning with an infield single, to cut the difference in half. In their next trip to the dish, the River Hawks took a 3-2 edge, as Case drove a two-run blast over the fence in left field.
 
White then held the Peacocks to just one hit in their final three at-bats to help her side hold on for the comeback victory.
 
In game two of the day, Iona took a quick, 2-0 advantage in the top of the first on a homer by Jamie Sheeran. The River Hawks looked to retaliate in the home half of the inning, using hits from Mueller and Fisher to put runners on the corners, but the Gaels were able to extinguish the opportunity.
 
LaCedra retired the opposing side in order in each of the next two innings, but Iona would stretch the margin to 3-0 in the fourth with three hits, including a RBI single by Kayla Haywood. However, the River Hawks continued to pressure, leaving a runner on base twice before senior Cayla Tulley (Corona, Calif.) drilled a triple deep down the right field line and score on a fielder's choice by freshman Katelyn Fitzgerald (Ambler, Pa.) in the sixth.
 
LaCedra forced the Gaels to go three-up and three-down in the seventh, allowing UMass Lowell to erase the difference in the bottom of the inning with a solo homer by Frederick and a RBI from Fisher that scratched across Mueller, the game's tying run.
 
Neither team was able to pull ahead in the eighth, but the River Hawks broke through in the ninth, as Mueller's sacrifice fly to center field was deep enough to score senior Brenna Davenport (Merrimack, N.H.) for the walk-off.
 
The River Hawks will face the same two teams on day two of the Rutgers Tournament tomorrow, Saturday, March 18, first taking on Iona at 9 a.m. before Saint Peter's at 11:15 a.m.