CLERMONT, Fla. – Victoria Aspiazu capped a monster day at the plate with a walk-off two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh inning to give the No. 12 TCNJ softball team a 5-3 victory over Defiance and a sweep of two games in Florida on Sunday.
Gillian Roberts tossed a five-hit shutout in a 4-0 win against Wisconsin-Platteville before Aspiazu's bomb handed the Lions a measure of reciprocation after conceding a walk-off to Nebraska-Wesleyan the night before.
Aspiazu had a two-run single in both contests and finished the day 4-for-6 with six RBIs.
TCNJ 4, Wisconsin-Platteville 0
Aspiazu staked TCNJ to an early lead with a two-out single to score
Camryn Davies and
Lauren Conroy in the top of the first.
Kayla Hillenbrand hit her first career homer in the second, a solo shot to make it 3-0, and Davies extended the lead to 4-0 an inning later by scoring a little-league home run after Platteville made two errors on her bunt attempt and allowed her to come all the way around the bases.
That was more than enough offense for Roberts, who was stellar in a four-inning relief effort on Friday. She allowed five hits and two walks, permitting a couple runners to get to third base but no further. She struck out three in registering her second career win.
TCNJ 5, Defiance 3
The Lions looked on the verge of a carbon-copy victory in the nightcap, when Aspiazu plated
Jaclyn Carifi and
Kaci Neveling with a two-run single in the bottom of the first.
Julia Kinnally's infield hit scored
Julia Mayernik with an unearned run in the third, and
Ally Schlee made the lead stand up with a dominant five-inning stretch in which she surrendered just two hits.
Schlee ran into trouble in the sixth, when the Yellow Jackets strung three consecutive two-out hits together to cut the Lions' lead to 3-2. With runners on second and third,
Julia Roessler came on in relief of Schlee and got out of the jam with a fly-out to center.
Defiance tied it in the seventh and had runners on second and third with only one out, but
Marina Costello entered and prevented the Yellow Jackets from taking the lead with a pop-up and a ground ball back to the circle.
Aspiazu rewarded Costello's clutch performance in the bottom half, tagging her second career home run with two outs to polish off a thrilling win.
Aspiazu finished 2-for-3 with four RBIs to lead the offense, with Neveling drawing three walks and reaching base all four times. Carifi scored two runs as well.
Schlee worked 5.2 innings, allowing two runs on six hits with a walk and a strikeout.
TCNJ has a day off on Monday before returning to action against Wooster on Tuesday.
